Twitter's new button lets you start a DM from a tweet

Tweets can often spark private conversations on Twitter, though the way to do it wasn't always convenient or obvious (and sometimes involved tedious copying and pasting). Now Twitter is streamlining the process.

Twitter is introducing a new button that lets you instantly share a tweet via direct message.

Twitter announced the new Message button as a simpler way to privately share tweets on iOS and Android. Previously, users had to tap and hold a tweet to pop up a menu and then select “Share via Direct Message” -- an extra step that many people probably don't know about or think about when perusing their feeds.

This isn’t a big update, but it shows that Twitter is leaning toward supporting direct message interaction, which according to the blog post has seen a 60% growth in the number of messages sent over 2015. Users have also been sharing tweets in direct messages more and more, increasing by 200% in the second half of 2015.

Via Giphy

There's no version of the button on the web, but sharing tweets via direct message is already available through the menu button next to the Like button on the web version of Twitter.

Twitter has been slowly upgrading direct messaging for a while now. Since the beginning of 2015, Twitter has updated direct messages to include group messaging add video sharing, increase the character length beyond 140 characters, and add GIF sharing.

While Twitter may not be looking to replace chat services, these updates all make direct messaging more appealing to Twitter users, allowing people to easily chat and share tweets privately without needing to leave the app.

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