Twitter has rolled out a behind-the-scenes update to Direct Messages that now shows you the date and time when your message was read. The update, which does not require any sort of app update on your Android devices, brings Direct Messages more in line with other Instant Messaging applications like Facebook Messenger. Now, instead of wondering if your message has been read, you will see in the message thread the date (if it is not today) and time that the message was read.
I did some testing this afternoon with fellow Google Top Contributor Russ Buchmann and found having the time indicator that he read my message (and likewise, he could see I read his message)
Twitter Direct Messages Read Receipts
to be handy. Russ & I usually communicate by Hangouts which doesn’t have a read time receipt and frankly, I didn’t really think much about it until I did this test with him. Hopefully this is something we see in the vaporware yet to be released Allo solution when it comes to Android devices.
Twitter is clearly moving the platform and DMs into a more Instant Messaging direction and this addition will certainly help in that effort. The question remains however if it will move those not using Twitter DMs from their currently platform to it. The answer is likely no given that not everyone uses Twitter.
