Twitter has always had trouble creating an identity for itself, which explains its stagnant growth and why no one wants to buy it, even with its best efforts. Despite its image as a public network, there is very much a private side to the service as well – in direct messages, or DMs as they are popularly called. You can interact with other Twitter users without the constraint of 140 characters, or revealing the contents of those messages on your profile – as happens with tweets by default – but you can’t simply DM anyone.

As such, you can only start a conversation with someone who follows you. But Twitter isn’t just a place for individuals only – brands, companies, celebrities, or communities are all on the social network too. That’s why Twitter allows you to customise the options for direct messages, letting you receive messages from anyone, which is colloquially known as ‘open DMs’.

If you’re interested in doing so, you’ve come to the right place. Follow these steps to allow or prevent any Twitter user from starting a direct message (DM) conversation with you:

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