Direct Messages on Twitter, or DMs, are … sacred. You can only interact via DM with someone on Twitter if you both follow each other. That’s basically the most sacred of communication pathways, “I will only allow you to talk to me if I like you. If I don’t, I probably won’t see anything you ever say to me.” Superstars are deluged with tweets everyday – Your EDM has a response from Justin Bieber from March 25th of this year that is still being replied to (and it annoys us) – but they they’re a dime a dozen. DMs are much more selective.
However, it seems the days of sacred communication, the last bastion of gated conversation, is coming to an end. Twitter has enable its users to DM each other without restriction. According to Complex,
Starting today, Twitter users can now DM anyone, regardless of if they follow them or not. The update is an effort by Twitter to turn itself into more of a messaging service, perhaps like WhatsApp, which was recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion.
There’s still one thing though: users can opt out of it. So for the technologically impaired who still somehow ended up using Twitter, you might be receiving some strange messages soon. For the rest of us who can navigate a simple U/I to find the On/Off switch, we’re good.
H/T Cult Of Android