Twitter rolling out improvements for sending DMs; announces voice and video calls

Twitter has been working on a lot of changes recently. And while some of them are quite controversial, the company also has some cool features in its plans. On Tuesday, the platform began rolling out an update to its iOS and Android app that brings improvements for sending direct messages (DMs). In addition, Twitter confirmed that it will soon let users make audio and video calls.

Twitter to get improved DMs and calls

The news was shared by Twitter owner Elon Musk on his personal profile. According to Musk, the latest version of the Twitter app lets users reply to any message in a thread, not just the most recent one. In addition, users will also have the option to select any emoji as a reaction. But that’s not all.

According to Musk, Twitter will launch encrypted DMs on Wednesday. This will represent a major step forward when it comes to privacy, as the encrypted messages can’t be accessed by the company. The executive said that the encrypted messages “will grow in sophistication rapidly.” Back in 2018, Twitter admitted that a bug let third-party app developers get access to some users’ direct messages.

Interestingly, Musk also said that Twitter has been working on a new voice and video chat feature that should work quite similarly to FaceTime. The company’s CEO mentioned that users will be able to call using their handle “to anyone on this platform, so you can talk to people anywhere in the world without giving them your phone number.”

Twitter currently lets users talk live by voice via Twitter Spaces, but Spaces are public and intended for group chats. This will be the first time that Twitter will try to compete with other online audio and video calling platforms.

Bug affecting Circles has now been fixed

Back in April, several Twitter users were affected by a bug that showed private Twitter Circle tweets to random users in the For You tab. Last week, Twitter acknowledged the security incident and informed users in an email sent out on Friday that the bug has now been fixed.

Twitter has also reversed its decision and will let some government services continue to use the Twitter API for free after shutting it down in early April.

Read also:

• Twitter handles to be made available for reuse, as inactive accounts purged
• Twitter checkmark chaos continues, with deceased celebrities and claims of fraud
• Twitter starts removing blue checkmarks from ‘legacy’ verified users

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