Twitter wants to change the way you use DMs

The way X (Formerly Twitter) users interact with the platform's Direct Messages feature has changed a lot over the years. But users' relationship to DMs could soon change even more.

X (Formerly Twitter) reportedly plans on making DMs a separate feature from the original app -- and here's what that actually means.

In short, the plan is to make it so users on X (Formerly Twitter) can be used only as a private messaging app if someone so desires. Perhaps similar to how Meta allows its users to only download a Facebook Messenger app that they can use separately as long as they are logged into their Facebook account.

The idea, for example, is that you would be able to message someone in a DM even if you didn't follow their posts on the app itself.

It is unclear exactly how this is meant to work, since users can technically use their private messages without posting anything publicly on the app. But much like Facebook Messenger, the intent seems to be to allow users to treat the two things as completely separate experiences that do not directly impact one another.

Maybe this will finally fix some of the updates the platform as made to DMs, such as making it more difficult to message accounts who don't follow you if you don't pay for X Premium (which is, realistically, nothing more than an attempt to get more people to subscribe to X Premium).

Each user can individually adjust their Direct Message settings to specify who they can receive messages from as well, which brings up another question about separating out Twitter and its DM features. But as always, the platform will either find that this feature works or that it doesn't, while it continues to make more changes no one really asked for in the first place.