Twitter mobile app update adds support for searching DM content
Twitter finally added the ability to search the content of your DMs to its mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Previously, users were limited to searching only the names of DM participants and the names of group chats they participated in. Now, Twitter has expanded the search feature to include any text in the body of DMs you've sent or received as well.
Search also now supports specifying whether you're searching for the name of a user, a group name, or message content to help narrow results when the query might be an ambiguous word.
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DM search was launched in the iOS version of the Twitter app in 2019 but didn't make it to Android until mid-2021.
Early feedback from users trying out the new feature suggests that it does a good job of locating queried text in conversations, but results are limited to only the past few years. Twitter did not specify exactly how far back DM conversations would remain searchable, and the time-based limitation does also seem to affect searches directed at usernames or group chat titles.
This launch comes a few weeks after Twitter also expanded its Birdwatch crowdsourced fact-checking service to additional users and about one month after the social network introduced new, crypto-based payment methods to its Tipping feature.
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The relatively simplistic feature may seem like something Twitter would have introduced ages ago, but it is now available in the latest versions of the official Android and iOS Twitter apps from Google Play and Apple's App Store.