Is it a combat strategy against spam or an enticement for Twitter Blue? That's the question arising from Twitter's latest move. The social media giant is currently testing a novel feature involving restrictions on who can use its Direct Message (DM) service, as revealed in recent back-end code findings.
In essence, Twitter is looking to allow only its premium Twitter Blue subscribers to send DM requests to users they aren't following. This new twist on Twitter's DM policy could potentially curtail users' messaging options, especially those who leverage Twitter DMs for outreach purposes.
Twitter has long served as a networking hub, facilitating direct connections between users who may be interested in potential partnerships or collaborations. However, without the $8 monthly Twitter Blue subscription, this access might be a thing of the past. The most likely outcome might be users switching platforms to connect with the same individuals.
Nonetheless, the new policy could act as a spam deterrent, significantly limiting the use of DMs as a spamming tool. The logic is simple - if spammers are required to pay to send you unsolicited messages, they're less likely to do so. Though circumvented by spammers enrolling in Twitter Blue, it could still reduce the spam to some extent.
A significant objective of the Twitter Blue subscription program is to make spamming cost-prohibitive, helping control the flood of unwelcome tweets. If successful, this could result in fewer random invites and notifications cluttering your DM inbox.
Twitter is also planning to limit who can add people to DM groups, another spam-prevention measure. This could be a relief to users constantly being added to random groups promoting spam, scams, or simply strange chat threads.
While this might offer some respite from spam, it could also limit the direct connective options within the app, impacting some user interactions. But considering only about 0.28% of Twitter users currently subscribe to Twitter Blue, this restriction could significantly cut down message spam in the app. It might be a move worth experimenting with, at the very least.
