Twitter Unveils Direct Messaging to All

Always wanted to DM someone that wasn’t following you? Well, your wish may have been granted by Twitter itself. Overnight, Twitter unveiled the new ability to direct message individuals who are not following you. This option can be easily switched on and off, for those who fear they can be spammed with messages from anyone. In turn, this now becomes a major customer service tool for companies, as individuals can now direct message companies they have an issue with, without  making the conversation public.

Journalists and media will also see the major changes brought upon by this option, as I can only imagine the amount of direct message pitches they will receive from people wanting to get written up in their publication or blog.

However, this option is not entirely set in stone, as Twitter has always required users to be following each other in order to receive direct messages from each other. Twitter will surely have to monitor user response in order to best determine if this is a setting they want to keep, or throw away.

I currently have the choice to choose whether or not I would like to receive DMs from anyone and I have it switched to on, just to see how useful or detrimental the setting truly is. Of course, it will take a few weeks to truly measure the effects of this change, as people find out about it and either accept or deny the option.