In a bid to attract more users toward its paid subscription, Twitter has announced that it will restrict the number of direct messages (DMs) that unverified accounts can send per day.
In its explanation for the change, the official Twitter Support account said it is restricting the number of DMs to reduce spam messages. It is unclear what the ‘daily limit’ for DMs would be.
We'll soon be implementing some changes in our effort to reduce spam in Direct Messages. Unverified accounts will have daily limits on the number of DMs they can send. Subscribe today to send more messages: https://t.co/0CI4NTRw75
— Support (@Support) July 21, 2023
As shared by Engadget, the policy change comes after Twitter introduced a new message setting on July 14th that filters DMs from accounts that users follow while sending other DMs from verified users that they do not follow to a separate message request inbox. Twitter claimed that this setting reduced spam messages by 70 percent in one week.
While spam DMs are likely a concern over at Twitter, the move feels more like a cash grab and a subtle push towards subscribing to Twitter Blue, especially considering that the tweet itself prompts users to “subscribe today to send more messages.”
The subscription costs $10/month or $105 annually. It prioritizes your tweets in conversations and search, reduces ads between tweets, allows for bold and italic text in tweets, and provides the ability to edit tweets.
We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load. Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2023
The social media company’s cash flow has dropped by 50 percent due to advertisers dropping the platform, and prompting users to subscribe to use Twitter and finding new sources of income could help Twitter make up for the lost ad revenue.
Source: @TwitterSupport, Via: Engadget
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