On Tuesday, Twitter released a new Message button feature which enabled users of its iOS and Android app to share their tweets privately.
"Starting today, you'll notice something new on Tweets - a Message button. With this new feature, it's simple to share a tweet via Direct Message and spark a private conversation," said Twitter's Somas Thyagaraja in yesterday's release. "So now - in just a few taps - you can share unique Twitter content from your timeline right into your private conversation."
The introduction of this feature comes as the product of a mix between user demand and apparent trends. Millions of people employ the Direct Messages feature to interact privately with family, friends, brands and other entities, and the feature has been on the rise in the past year. Statistics from Twitter reveal that compared to a 60 percent increase in the number of messages sent between users in 2015, the number of messages shared privately between users increased by 200 percent in the second half of that year alone.
With these statistics coupled with the suggestions of various users who said that sending Tweets through Direct Messages would be helpful, or even make it its own app, the birth of the new Message button feature was almost inevitable.
As you may remember, sharing tweets via Direct Message (or DM) used to be a somewhat tedious process, requiring users to long-press a Tweet on their timeline (if using the mobile app) or hitting the "••• More" icon below a tweet (if on TweetDeck or the Twitter main site) and then selecting the "Share via Direct Message" option.
Now, with the introduction of the Direct Message button, sharing Tweets privately has become a rather simple process.
Here's how it works (note that before using the feature, the Twitter app for iOS or Android needs to be updated):
1. Find the Tweet you want to share.
2. Click on the new icon below the selected Tweet. It's located to the right of the heart icon and looks like an envelope.
3. Select the group or individual you want to send the Tweet to.
4. Add a comment to the selected text - if you wish - then press send.
If you want to see how it looks first-hand, the release also features a GIF. You'll notice the end result will look quite similar to instant messaging seen on AOL or Facebook.
The new Message button is already available for Twitter app users on Android and iOS, and all you need to is update the app to its latest version. However, as mentioned before, the button is only for the app version. It isn't available on the Web version, and its unclear if it ever will be.
