Twitter recently announced new features for its Direct Messaging service. The first feature allows users to be able to read receipts in DM. Users will be shown a blue check mark next to the message timestamp when it has been read. The social media giant is rolling out this feature at present only to its mobile apps on Android and iOS. However, users will also be shown the check mark for messages that are viewed from Twitter.com.
In case a user does not want others to know when they read a message, they have the option to disable receipts from Twitter’s security page. However, anytime this option is enabled, the user will not be able to see the check mark on messages that they send as well. In addition to this feature update, Twitter is also rolling out two new changes. One is a typing indicator and the other is an expanded preview for web links; this change resembles the previews that appear in tweets.
Most users will already be familiar with these features if they use other chat apps such as WhatsApp. However, with Twitter now rolling out these features to its users, it is a clear indication that the social site is building its Direct Messaging service to function as a standalone tool.
