14 DAY TRIAL // In view of recent events which have had Wall Street investors ganging up on Twitter over the small growth in the number of users, it seems that the microblogging site is actively looking into innovative ways to attract new users.
Ever since investors started pressuring Twitter’s CEO, several changes have taken place within the social platform, which are meant not only to entice new users, but also to persuade those who already have an account to stay.
After revamping its homepage to make it more appealing to logged-out users, Twitter has come up with another way to improve its users' online experience.
The company announced in an official blog post that they have tweaked the private messaging system so that now you can receive a direct message from anyone, whether you follow them or not.
If you want to activate this option, all you have to do is go to Settings on your profile, then on Security and Privacy, and at the very bottom of the page you should have an option that says Receive Direct Messages from anyone. Make sure it’s checked, and you should then have the option to send and receive messages from just about anyone.
Furthermore, in order to make it easier for mobile users, Twitter has also added a Direct Message button on the profile pages of people so that you can start a private conversation by clicking that button.
Not everyone was thrilled about the change
Although it might be good news for companies and celebrities because they will be able to receive messages from their customers/fans without having to follow them back, regular users were quick to notice the disadvantages of this new feature, claiming that it actually encourages spamming and online harassment.
However, the option is not mandatory, and users are given the possibility to opt out in case they do not want to be disturbed with messages from strangers worldwide.
Twitter also announced that they had other changes in store regarding the private messaging system in order to make it easier for users to communicate among themselves.