How to Send Messages on Twitter

Sending a direct message on Twitter is a way to send communication to a user without having it publicly seen.

While a majority of the communication on Twitter is of public access and is often referred to as "tweets," you also have the ability to send private messages, otherwise known as "direct messages" to those who follow your account. These messages are only accessible to the person that you send them to, and will not show up on your public Twitter feed. These messages also are not able to be "retweeted" or sent out via the other person's Twitter feed. Sending a direct message is simple, and takes just a few steps once you are logged in to your account.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet access
• Twitter account

Instructions

How to Send Messages on Twitter

1. Log in to your Twitter account with your user name and password that you signed up with. This will bring you to your homepage where you will see the feed of all of the Twitter users you are following.

2. Find the user's handle that you want to direct message. You can find this either by looking through your followers. The list can be found at the top, where it gives a number then says "Followers" underneath. Click on this link, and it will show all of the users.

3. Type "d," a space, then the user's Twitter handle into the message box. It is important not to use the @ sign before the user's Twitter handle, as you would for most replies on twitter. The d, a space following after it and no @ sign before the user's Twitter handle will allow the Twitter platform to recognize that you want to send the message directly to the user.

4. Type the message following the d, space sign and Twitter user's name without the @ sign. The message, as with tweets, must be under 140 characters.

5. Be sure you are sending a direct message before sending. You can confirm this by looking above the box where you are typing and it should say "Direct message:". If it does not say this, then you have either not left a space after the "d," or you are using the @ sign before the user's Twitter handle.

6. Press send. Your direct message has now been sent. To see all of the messages you have sent, look to the right column of your homepage and click "Direct Messages," then in that page click "Sent." All direct messages will appear that you have sent on this page.

References

• Twitter: What is a direct message?