 "Twitter may revamp Direct Messages to make it a standalone messaging app")
The Direct Messaging feature on Twitter has been a handy tool for users ever since it came into being. Simply by following each other on the micro-blogging site, you could converse privately on Twitter and this has been a key feature for the service. It has, however, been languishing as one product that has not been paid much attention to by the Twitter bosses. With the IPO looming ahead, this seems to be changing as the DM is might now be getting sharper fangs.
AllThingsD has claimed that Twitter is looking to make its DM feature into a standalone entity, separate from Twitter itself. The website recently introduced a feature it has been rolling out slowly and cautiously that allows users to receive DMs from any of their followers, regardless of whether they themselves follow their tweets.
You may get an app for your DM
On the back of this recent feature, the report has suggested that Twitter has “kicked around” the idea of a separate DM platform, even though it is not sure what form it will finally take. Twitter activating this DM-from-anyone feature could well be a part of an experiment to see how this private messaging application could work out in the past.
Twitter recently released a tablet-optimised application on Android that has clues to a feature that could also be a part of this experiment. The app was relased only for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and since it has the S-Pen, Twitter introduced a feature wherein users can share doodles they’ve drawn. Of course, this is reminiscent of Snapchat, the private messaging application that destroys messages after they are read.
In its S-1 filings, Twitter has mentioned that it sees KakaoTalk, a cross-platform messaging app on the lines of WhatsApp and Line, as a threat. Twitter seems to want to go down the Facebook path by combining social network with a deeply immersive messaging feature, but will hopefully get this one right, since it has the potential to filter out noise based on who we follow and who we don’t. For example, Twitter could only let users mutually following each other send DMs while messages received from just your followers will land up in another inbox folder like Facebook.
The source claims that the DM feature – which is now almost indispensable to most Twitter users – was not even thought of as a permanent fixture on the service. Twitter employees had even contemplated killing it off altogether. However, that did not happen, and you can breathe a sigh of relief. Exciting times for people who love conversing on Twitter’s DMs seems to be coming and we all have the upcoming IPO to thank for this.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
