Direct messages, or DMs, are complicated by social networking standards. Unlike Facebook, where even strangers can reach out to send private messages, there are rules that are in play with Twitter DMs. A person can only send a direct message to a follower. In turn, users can only receive DMs from people they follow.
With such rules in place, it's not surprising that managing direct messages can sometimes be a complicated proposition. This is mostly due to a lack of synchronicity between the service's mobile app and its website. For instance, deleting direct messages on the social network is not as straightforward as one might expect. A message that's deleted on a mobile app may still show up on the service's website version.
However, with a growing number of users embracing the feature as a stand-in for instant messaging services, Twitter is releasing a fix, one that addresses a simple issue that has oddly persisted.
With the update, all direct messages are stored and visible in the Android and iPhone Twitter app. However, this is not the case with the social network's web version. On Twitter.com, only the 100 most recent direct messages are visible. While the DMs that are not displayed still reside in the Twitter database, the issue remains an inconvenience because users would have to switch to mobile when trying to access old DMs. This is especially bothersome for users who have many messages that have gone past the cut-off point.
Twitter announced the update by providing a help center link that gave step-by-step instructions on how to use its DM feature.
"Over the next few weeks, we're rolling out an update that makes deleting DMs more consistent across web and mobile," the company tweeted.
Later, Twitter followed up with another tweet to announce the roll out of the update to its mobile apps. "We're also making an update to the Twitter iPhone and Android apps that will allow you to access your entire DM history."
The company said that it is still working on back-end elements for its direct messaging feature. Due to this, users would remain unable to send links in DMs, as they have for the past few months.
