X topic
Twitter Direct Messages: Settings, Requests and Chat
Twitter direct messages let you write to one person or to a group without posting in public. This topic gathers what X Help says on who can message you, message requests, read receipts and limits, then what Chat changed. No article in this topic is published yet. One is planned, and it covers Twitter Direct Messages. We have not tested messaging on an account ourselves.
Who can Message You on Twitter
X Help sets the rules for who can start a conversation with you. Most of them depend on one setting, which the Message Settings section below explains.
| Sender | What X Help says |
|---|---|
| Follower | Can start a private or group chat |
| Non follower | Needs your Receive messages from anyone setting, a Verified badge you allow or a chat you started |
| Subscriber | Can write only if a creator allows it, which is off by default |
| Premium Business member | Can write to another member of the same plan without following |
| Blocked account | Cannot hold a one on one chat with you |
Some accounts, like businesses, can receive messages from anyone. You can write to them without a follow. Our Twitter for Business topic covers the Direct Message tools that brands use.
Message Requests and the Quality Filter
A message from someone you do not follow lands under Requests when you allow messages from anyone. New group chats added by a non follower land there too. You can accept or delete a request. The sender cannot tell you saw it until you accept.
Media in a request stays hidden until you accept. Deleting a request does not stop later messages from that account, so X Help points to block and report for that. In the iOS and Android apps a quality filter is on by default. It hides lower quality requests and sends no notification for them.
Message Settings That Control Your Inbox
X Help puts the controls under Privacy and safety, then Direct Messages. The labels differ a little by platform, so match them by meaning.
- Receive messages from anyone, also worded as Allow message requests from everyone
- Allow message requests from Verified users and people you follow only
- Allow messages from my subscribers, for creators, off by default
- Show read receipts, on by default
Read receipts work both ways. When you switch them off, you also stop seeing the receipts of other people. Switching off messages from anyone does not close chats you already have with non followers. You must block or report those accounts to end them.
Direct Message Limits and Deleting
X Help gives a few fixed limits for the app.
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| People in a group chat | 256 |
| Pinned conversations | 6 |
| Edits to one message | 5 |
You can send photos, videos and GIFs. Everyone in the chat can see shared media, and X Help warns that a person can download or share it again. Links are shortened to t.co, and anyone holding the short link can reach the address behind it.
Deleting a message or a chat clears it only from your side. The other person keeps their copy. To delete on iOS or Android, press and hold a message, or swipe or press and hold a chat in your inbox.
What Chat Changed in Twitter Direct Messages
X launched Chat in November 2025 as an end to end encrypted replacement for its direct messages, MacRumors reported on 17 November 2025. The rollout began on iOS, and an Android version was described as coming. The report lists voice and video calls, disappearing messages, file sharing, and editing and unsending. It adds screenshot blocking and a carry over of old messages.
The same report states two limits that X gave. Encryption does not cover message metadata, like who wrote to whom. X also said Chat lacks safeguards against a man in the middle attack, and it was building tools to verify chats. The report adds that X previewed an early version earlier in 2025 and paused it in May. Our Twitter New Features and Updates timeline holds the daily request caps by plan.
What is Still Unconfirmed
The X Help article on direct messages we read does not mention encryption, and it shows no publish date. It does not say which version of the inbox it describes, so check the live Privacy and safety screens before you rely on a label. Our one source for the Chat launch date is a news report, because we could not load the X Help article on Chat during this check. We found no test of the quality filter or of how many requests it hides. We have not used Chat ourselves, so nothing here is Tested.
Where This Topic Fits
This topic sits inside our X (Twitter) section, next to Twitter New Features and Updates. A guide appears here the day it goes live and is marked Tested or Checked, as our editorial policy explains. Changes are logged on our change log. Namrata Arora edits this section. To look up a term, use the social media glossary or SMTwist search.
Sources: X Help on Direct Messages and MacRumors on X Chat.
FAQ
Who can send you a direct message on Twitter?
Anyone who follows you can. Non followers can also write to you when you switch on messages from anyone, when they are Verified and you allow Verified users or when you messaged them first. This comes from X Help.
Can the sender see that you read a message request?
Not until you accept it. X Help says a sender of a request cannot tell whether you read it. Read receipts for accepted chats are on by default and you can switch them off in Privacy and safety.
Does deleting a Twitter message remove it for the other person?
No. X Help says a deleted message or chat disappears only from your account. Everyone else in the conversation can still see it. Deleting a group chat removes you from the group.