Twitter to launch standalone Direct Messaging app?
Twitter has been making a lot of improvements to its messaging experience in its mobile apps in recent months. It first introduced Direct Message syncing and other improvements back in July, and in recent weeks started rolling out the ability to receive direct messages from any follower (even those you don’t specifically follow) for a select number of users after testing it internally. Today, a new report claims that Twitter is planning further improvements to Direct Messaging and could as far as launching a standalone messaging app, much like Facebook Messenger.
The company plans to significantly update its direct-messaging product in the near future, according to multiple sources, bringing the long-buried feature to the forefront for the first time in years.
But Twitter’s new vision for direct messages will go further. It has kicked around the idea of launching a standalone direct-messaging application separate from the Twitter app, according to three people familiar with the matter. It is unclear, however, what form the final revamp of direct messages will take.
The report doesn’t provide much more info on Twitter’s plans, but does say it recently met with employees from MessageMe, one of the increasingly popular messaging apps that Twitter’s revamped DM service would attempt to combat. It also adds that we could see the new Direct Messaging app by the end of the year alongside a previously reported design overhaul.
