Send a Direct Message on Twitter
Like most social media platforms, Twitter gives you an option to send private messages to your friends! You can take advantage of this feature on both mobile- and computer-based platforms by tapping the "Messages" tab in the bottom-right corner of your app (mobile) or by clicking the same option in the top left corner of your Twitter page.
Contents
Steps
Using the Twitter App
- Tap the "Twitter" app to open Twitter. This should open straight to your account.
- If you aren't logged into Twitter on your phone, you'll need to do so in order to access your account.
- Tap the "Messages" tab. This should be in the bottom right corner of your screen.
- You can tap an existing conversation in order to open it from here.
- Tap the "New Message" icon. This is in the top right corner of your screen; doing so will bring up a list of your most frequently contacted Twitter friends.
- You can only send messages to people who are currently following you.
- Tap a Twitter contact's name. After their name appears in a drop-down menu, tap it; this will add them to a new message. You can do this for as many Twitter friends as you like if you want to create a group message.
- You can also type a friend's handle (their "@username" tag) to bring up their name.
- Tap "Next" in the top right corner of your screen. This will take you to a new message window with your contact.
- Tap the "Start a new message" field. This should be at the bottom of your screen; tapping it brings up a keyboard.
- Type into the message field. This will add text to your message. Note that you will have to tap the "Send" option to send the message.
- Tap the "GIF" or camera icon to add a GIF or photo. These are both to the left of your message field. A GIF is a dynamic image format, while the camera icon will allow you to upload any other photo file type.
- Tap "Send" to send your message. This should be to the right of your message field. You have successfully sent a direct message!
Using a Computer
- Open your preferred browser. To send a message from Twitter, you'll first need to log into your Twitter account.
- Navigate to Twitter's website. If you're already logged into Twitter, this will take you to your Twitter account's home screen.
- Enter your log in credentials. These consist of your phone number, username, or email address, followed by a password.
- Click the "Log in" option when you're done. This will be in the top right corner of your screen.
- Click the "Messages" tab. This should be at the top of your screen in the group of tabs that starts with "Home".
- Click "New Message". This will bring up a window with your most-contacted people.
- If you wish to contact one of these people, click their name.
- Type a Twitter friend's name into the field at the top of the window. This will bring up a drop-down menu with their name, along with any Twitter accounts that come close to the same spelling.
- Click your Twitter friend's name. This will add them to the "New Message" bar; you can add as many people as you like to this bar if you want to message more than one person.
- Click "Next" in the bottom right corner of your screen. This will take you to the chat window, from which you can type your message.
- Type your message into the field at the bottom of the screen. Note that you'll have to click the "Send" button to actually send your message.
- Click the "GIF" or camera icon to add a GIF or photo. These should be to the right of the text field at the bottom of your screen.
- Click "Send" when you're done typing. This will send your message!
- Alternatively, you can visit a Twitter friend's account and click the "Message" option below their profile picture on the left side of your screen.
Managing Your Direct Messages
- Navigate to Twitter's website or open the mobile app. You can perform a variety of actions on your existing messages from within the "Messages" tab.
- Open your Twitter's message archive. You can to this by tapping or clicking on the "Messages" tab on your respective device.
- Tap the checkmark icon at the top of your message menu. This will mark all messages in your inbox as read, removing all notifications from your inbox in the process.
- This icon is on the far left side of the menu on mobile, while the website version will be right next to the New Message icon.
- Tap or click a message to open it. You can change the settings of an individual message from within that message.
- Tap or click the three horizontal dots. This will open a menu for your specific conversation.
- These are in the top right corner of both mobile and computer platforms.
- Review your message options. You have three universal options for every message:
- "Turn off notifications" - Remove alerts for new messages from this specific thread.
- "Leave conversation" - Removes your contact information from the conversation. If you choose this option, Twitter will ask you to confirm your choice since doing so will delete the conversation from your inbox.
- "Flag" - Report the message as spam. Upon selecting this option, you are asked to select either "Flag as spam" or "Mark as abusive".
- Tap the "Add people" option to add contacts to your conversation. You can only do this on the mobile app; if you want to have a group conversation on a computer, your conversation must start out with more than one person.
- After tapping the "Add people" option, you'll need to tap contacts' names from a drop-down menu to add them.
- Return to the main Twitter feed when you're done. You can return to the Messages tab at any time to continue managing your DMs.
Tips
- Twitter messages are private by default.
Warnings
- You won't be able to contact people who aren't following you from their profile.
- Often times, you won't be able to send messages to high-profile figures such as celebrities or politicians.
