There’s a new button on Twitter that is going to make sharing tweets a lot easier. Until now, sharing tweets entailed selecting it and then using the “Settings” option to send the tweet through Direct Message. Now, one click of the new button will allow users to immediately share a tweet using Direct Messages.
The button, conveniently located under the tweet near the retweet and love buttons, is an effort to facilitate private conversations between the platform’s 320 million active users. According to Twitter, it will help make conversations “richer.”
“Every day, millions of people send Direct Messages to communicate privately with friends, family, experts, brands, and anyone else they find interesting on Twitter,” said product manager Somas Thyagaraja in a blog post. “In fact, we've seen the number of messages sent grow over 60% in 2015.”
“And the number of Tweets shared privately has grown even faster, at 200% in just the second half of last year,” added Thyagaraja . “With all this interest, we've also heard from many of you that it could be easier to share a tweet using Direct Message. So now — in just a few taps — you can share unique Twitter content from your timeline right into your private conversation.”
The envelope-shaped button, which is available today in the iOS and Android update, is the latest change the platform has made for Direct Messages, after removing the character limit last year. Previously, Twitter has added different modes of communication by allowing users to connect to a group of people, and use GIFs and emojis.
