Twitter has announced a much-needed pair of improvements to the direct messaging portion of its service, which will roll out over the next few weeks.
On its Twitter Support account, the firm announced mobile users will soon be able to see their entire DM history on their mobile phones, rather than just the last few conversations.
In a second tweet, the firm announced it is working on changes that will syncronise deleted messages across all of a user's devices.
As of now, users can delete a conversation on their smartphone, yet still see it on their tablet or in the web browser at Twitter.com.
Taking on WhatsApp?
Twitter has started to make strides to make its DM feature less of an afterthought.
As Mashable points out, the firm introduced pop-up notifications on the web in April, added photos last December, tested out messaging options that didn't require users to follow each other.
It is also rumoured the firm is interested in rolling out group messaging, or even a standalone messaging app.
Direct Messaging remains somewhat of an untapped resource within Twitter. Making it more prominent could allow it to rival the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
At a recent earnings call CEO Dick Costolo said: "When you think about the best international opportunity, there's a real opportunity for us when we think about our private messaging to strengthen the core of our Twitter product by making it easier for users to move more fluidly between the public conversation that happens everywhere on Twitter and the private conversation between you and a friend or you and a few friends."
