Putting the ‘social’ back into the social media, a new update from Twitter lets you receive direct messages from anyone.

You’ve Got Mail

Before you worry about hoardes of trolls and bots being unleashed, you have to opt-in before you’re able to receive messages from users you don’t follow.

You can also be added to group conversations from people you don’t follow.

These will appear as Requests in the Messages tab. You can choose to accept them, where they’ll be moved to your inbox, or delete them.

It’s worth noting that deleting a message request doesn’t prevent that user from sending subsequent messages. If there’s an issue, you can always block that account or report the conversation.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The update is similar to the one Facebook made to Messenger back in 2015, where messages from users you’re not friends with go to the Message Requests folder.

However Messenger isn’t nearly as lively a platform as Twitter can be. While the update could help brands connect with new users and customers, having the blocking option is handy to swat away spammers and trolls.

What do you think of Twitter's new messaging policy? Would it benefit your brand?