The twitter DM or Direct Messages as they expand to are now being touted as equivalent to or the next e-mail system and are buzzing everywhere . It is a wonderful feature no doubt but a few changes to it will definitely go a long way in making the DM more useful and the twitter experience more pleasing. From my little head , the following things could be added to make DMs better and effective and their management easier
- Batch Select and process : There should be a “Select All” , “Archive” , “Delete” option in the DM page that would allow a tweep to select all or a few DMs and process them in batches , the current method of dealing with each message separately makes it very strenuous and tough to delete a lot of the useless things that get accumulated over time .Currently it is a pain and the possibility of accidentally deleting a useful and genuine DM meant for me is very high .Additionally there could be a radio-button adjoining each message that facilitates selective batch inclusion
- Message Flagging : Twitter could try and look for patterns like Dojo , gift , Britney , MLM , Forex, Teeth Whitening and the like and flag them in a different color , one look and we know what to read and what to delete .That would be a blessing
- Message Replication at recipient : The current scheme of DMs is implemented in such a way that if I send you a DM and you delete it , it disappears from my sent box and your inbox . This works both ways , If I accidentally delete something that you sent , it is gone from both sides forever .This can be solved by enabling replication and not linking of the message at the recipient end , that would mean that one copy of the message is potentially safe . In the scenario of someone sending me and objectionable DM and me wanting to sue , he can just delete it and deny it’s existence , poof ! So we really need a snapshot view and not a linked view
- Sender qualification : Unless someone follows me , he shouldn’t be able to send me a DM , otherwise , replying is a mess and we will be left begging someone to follow you to respond to any DM that they sent you
- Archive option : Like I mentioned in the first point , there should be an archive into which I can put selected DMs into for future reference , this need not hold all DMs , I should be able to select what gets archived
If all these get implemented , the DM system would be unbeatable
Link to this post!
i’d love to see these changes too
You know what I’d like to see? Threaded DM messages. You know, like how e-mails thread. Right now, it’s just a jumbled mess.
That’s a useful suggestion too ! Good one !
I also want to see that changes. Thanks for the informative post.