We’re not sure how to feel about this.
Twitter was one of the last social media apps which gave us a bit of freedom in private messages.
The dreaded ‘seen’ ticks on Messenger and Whatsapp means that you have to reply once the sender knows you’ve seen their message. Twitter was different. There was no ‘seen’ feature, which meant you could read the direct message without having to reply straight away, we had time to think of what we wanted to say.
But on Thursday, twitter announced some changed to their direct messaging service.
In a 38 second video posted to its official account, the micro-blogging site announced that it will now feature the stress-inducing ‘seen’ feature.
This is just one of the changes it is making to your DMs, it will also introduce the nerve-wracking replying indicator (those three little dots) so you know when someone is writing back to you.
Here’s how it will look:
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/773913816740409345
Group chats will now also show users icons while they are typing.
Twitter will also introduce link previews into their messaging service, instead of displaying as a long link.
People weren’t too happy about the addition of ‘seen’ and the three dots.
guys no one ever wants read receipts
— Adrienne Vogt (@AdrienneVogt) September 8, 2016
NOBODY ON THIS PLANET WANTS READ RECEIPTS IN DMS
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) September 8, 2016
— Richard Kam (@PulseIRL) September 8, 2016
read receipts? pic.twitter.com/jDbigOhNef
— 🐳 (@heavymetaIovers) September 8, 2016
No word yet on when the new DM features will be added to the site but here’s hoping there’s an opt-out option.