Twitter announced on Friday that changes are coming to their direct messages are sent and stored across the network. Twitter’s support account made the announcement via a Tweet that emphasized the upgrade would make deleting DMs more consistent:
Over the next few weeks, we’re rolling out an update that makes deleting DMs more consistent across web and mobile. http://t.co/VNtDXzwuvp
— Twitter Support (@Support) July 18, 2014
This may not sound like a major updates, but it actually solves a huge problem with Twitter’s mobile app. Previously, when users deleted a direct message on the iOS or Android app, the messages would still be present the next time the user logged into Twitter on desktop.
In addition, if you’re someone who likes to save all of your DMs, you will now have the option to view your entire DM history on your Twitter app.
This update comes at a time when the popularity of social messaging apps is soaring. After seeing how much Facebook valued WhatsApp, it’s no surprise that Twitter eventually decided to draw more attention to their private messaging offerings.
Private messaging on Twitter is a feature that’s often overlooked by its users, not counting the insufferable auto-DMs that are still used by some marketers. The company can no longer afford to have users ignore private messaging on Twitter if it plans to stay competitive and grow its user base.
For more information about direct messaging on Twitter, view this article in Twitter’s Help Center.