Twitter Goes Deep Into Privacy Factor; Share Tweets Via Direct Message
Twitter is tapping the privacy factor to pull more users on its site by rolling out a new feature that allows sharing tweets via Direct Message.
Twitter, the popular micro-blogging platform, unveiled a new feature that helps users privately share tweets via Direct Message. Building on the promise it made last week, Twitter said the improvement to Direct Messaging is part of an ongoing strategy to attract users to the site. The new feature is widely rolled out to all platforms, including the web as well as iOS and Android.
"Every day, people use Twitter to share what's interesting. And as you may have heard, now there's a new way to do that by sharing tweets privately using Direct Messages," Twitter's product manager Sachin Angarwal said in an official blog post, Thursday. "Twitter is already a great place for public conversation; now it's also easier to privately discuss things you care about."
According to Twitter, users can also share a tweet via Direct Message from web or TweetDeck app by navigating into the "More" menu. Users of mobile apps on iPhone and Android smartphones can simply long-press the tweet they wish to share and select "Share via Direct Message." The shared tweet via DM will appear as a push notification for the recipient and the tweet will be displayed directly in the conversation.
Previously, when users tried sharing a tweet via DM, it simply appeared as a link. The new feature makes a small yet an important development for those who want to share something privately.
Twitter has long been making several improvements to make its platform more user-friendly. The company announced Instant Timeline last week. The new feature was focused on new users as it presents them with series of tweets that may interest them, without having the follow others. On Thursday, the company improved its search function to find oldest of the tweets, even those dating back to 2006.
As for Twitter's future plans, the company is expected to launch native video app early next year, as an alternative to Vine or YouTube, Mashable reported.
