Twitter has launched a new embeddable button that you can place on your site to allow visitors to send you a direct message – negating the need for them to first visit your profile or look up your handle on the social network.
That should make it easier for businesses to offer another channel for customer support, and for public figures to accept private messages from their fans with less friction than before.
Announcing our new Message button. Now people can easily slide into your DMs from your website. Get yours now! https://t.co/ash9ouvgzu
— TwitterDev (@TwitterDev) August 24, 2016
To use the new Message button, find the option under ‘Twitter Buttons’ on this page, add your handle and numerical user ID (which you can grab from your settings). Then, copy the auto-generated code and paste it into your site, and you’re done. Oh, and you’ll also have to set Twitter to let you receive DMs from anyone – the option is available in the Security and privacy settings for your account.
You can also customize the way the button works, by adding text that will be prefilled when someone wants to DM you, and choose the language in which you want the button label to be displayed.
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The Message button joins Twitter’s other embeddable offerings for site owners, which include tweet grids, timelines and buttons for following and mentioning an account.
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