Culture

Twitter Opening Direct Messages For Your Followers

An opt in

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It's probably happened to you before: You try reaching out to someone privately on Twitter but find that direct messages aren't enabled because they don't follow you back. Twitter is slowly rolling out a new option to fix this: A setting that lets you receive direct messages from any follower, regardless of whether or not you follow them.

To find this setting, navigate to your Settings page by clicking the gear icon at the top. Scroll to the "Content" subhead on that page—listed under "Account"—and find the "Messages" section. By default, the new option is opt in. It reads, "Generally, you must follow someone before they have the ability to direct message you. If you check this option, any Twitter user that follows you will be able to send you a DM, regardless of whether you decide to follow them back." Check the box to opt in and click "Save changes" at the bottom.