It will be crucial to manage and keep an eye on your direct message inbox, whether your goal is to communicate directly with more followers or you simply want to stay in touch with your loved ones. You can discreetly send text, image, audio, or video files to another Twitter account using Twitter’s direct messaging (DM) feature. But it’s possible that you’ll get a notification telling you that you can’t text message another account. DMing on Twitter gives you a flexible way to get in touch with someone, and as long as you follow them back, you can communicate with anyone who follows you. Receiving Direct Messages from Anyone is another new function that you can access under your account settings (privacy and safety), which enables ANY Twitter user to DM you whether or not you follow them. However, there’s a chance you’ll get a message telling you not to message this person. When the recipient chooses not to receive direct messages from the sender, this message is displayed. When you access your chat inbox, you will notice this error. You’ll see that while you can view messages you’ve already sent and received, you won’t be able to access your most recent communications. It’s possible the Twitter account is private. By going to the settings menu, you may enable a function that allows you to choose between keeping your account confidential and public on Twitter. It is possible for the account owner to disable the ability to receive direct messages from anyone. It might be a Twitter-related bug.
Why Can’t I DM Someone On Twitter?
1. They Don’t Allow People They Don’t Follow to DM Them
We’ve all wanted to tweet that weird troll, have a nasty conversation, or message a small company to ask about their products. But we don’t want to deal with the hassle of following them. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered; you can message people even if they don’t follow you or you follow them. Before last year, it was impossible to message someone who did not follow you. As things stood, sending a direct message (DM) to a non-verified Twitter account required that account to have followed you first. No one could message you back unless you followed them, in turn. Twitter did not permit this capability to stop spam and harassment, but it is now easy to do so with just a small adjustment to the account settings on Twitter. Twitter considers it appropriate to let anyone send DMs to someone they might not even know in order to promote open dialogue. People will get your messages in their “Message request” folder, where they can accept or reject your request rather than directly from you.
Fix – Ask Them to Follow You Back
Click the “Twitter” icon in the app tray after unlocking your iPhone. Both methods are the same whether you have an Android or iOS device. Your home screen feed will include a profile option in the upper left corner. Please scroll down and tap it to access settings and privacy. On the opening menu, under “Settings and Privacy,” you may locate “Privacy and Safety.” Scroll down the new page after clicking it to find “Direct messages” and press it. To send or receive direct messages to persons who do not follow you, you must select the box next to “accept direct messages from anyone” under this option. You may also request a follow-back from them. If you want to allow this function, you should exercise a little caution because it invites spammers and trolls to send messages directly to your inbox. If you want to disable this feature in the future, just follow the instructions and uncheck the box labeled “Receive message requests.” I sincerely hope that this post on how to message a Twitter user you don’t follow is helpful.
2. They Have Their DMs off
If you select the option to Receive Direct Messages from anyone, regardless of your Tweet privacy settings, anyone can send you a direct message through your account (i.e., whether your Tweets are protected or not protected). Users on Twitter weren’t always able to prevent other users from sending them direct messages. However, Twitter has increased user control over features like direct messages (DMs) in response to the growing privacy concerns over the past few years, just like every other major social networking platform. Opting out of this function essentially means turning off one’s direct messages (DMs) when one finds themselves inundated with messages from accounts they don’t even follow.
Fix – Tell Them to Turn on Their DMs
Request that they activate their DMS. You can send your messages now that they have enabled their direct messages. To send messages, adhere to these guidelines.
- Touch the envelope symbol. Your messages will be directed to you.
- To send a message, select the message icon.
- Enter the name(s) or @username(s) of the person(s) to whom you want to send the message in the address box. Up to 50 persons can be included in a group message.
- Type your message here. You can add a photo, a video, or a GIF to your Direct Message in addition to text. Click or press the paper aircraft icon to send a message.
3. They Have Blocked You
A feature on Twitter allows users to block a profile they feel is offensive or plain bothersome. In order to stop receiving messages from anyone, many users turn off the direct messaging functionality for strangers. Keep in mind that if they are not following you, they will treat you as a stranger, and you won’t be able to direct message them. You can go directly to the account holder’s Twitter page to see whether they have blocked you or not. There, you may have limited access to their profile and will also be informed that you have been blocked. There may be several reasons why you have been blocked, but the most obvious one is that they no longer wish to talk with you. You might be unblocked, though, if the account holder decides to do so later.
Fix – Tell Them to Unblock You
Twitter allows you to send a single message to someone you’ve blocked by doing the following: To use the functionality, click the “learn more” button in the aforementioned image. You will be taken to the website home page of Twitter, where you can select “send message to @username.” Use Google Voice programs to get in touch with people you’ve been blocked by. You must have a working email address and password in order to use TextFreeApp. You will have to rely on other people to urge celebrities or public figures to unblock you if they have blocked you as a result of your use of sarcasm. However, you may now make use of this new feature to create a 140-character response to convince someone to unblock your account. To get the best results, it could be crucial to apologize in great detail.
4. You’ve DM’ed Too Many People At Once, So Twitter Has Banned You From DMing Temporarily
There is a daily cap of 1,000 Direct Messages per account. Once you’ve sent the allotted number of Direct Messages for the day. To message a user, particularly one who doesn’t follow you, you would need to wait until the next day. Additionally, if you send the same message and link to many accounts, it can be flagged as spam. You might be prevented from sending DMs in this situation for a brief period of time. Typically, you have to wait up to 30 minutes between communications. As a matter of formal policy, Twitter declines to comment on specific users, and its rules have always been ambiguous, so it hasn’t always been clear why it penalizes its users. That was true up until a recent revision to Twitter’s user guidelines that clarified what would and would not result in a ban. It’s a part of a larger internal initiative to stop abuse and make sure users understand what’s permitted on the service. Depending on the offense committed, the length of a limitation on a Twitter account varies. It will state how long it will take for you to regain full capability when you receive the error notice stating that your account is restricted or that some capabilities have been reduced. But, it may take between 12 hours up to 7 days.
Fix – Wait 24 Hours Because Trying to Message Someone
There are a few remedies you can attempt if you see the “Cannot retrieve messages at this time” or “Cannot retrieve Tweets at this time” error messages: Check your internet connection: A poor or nonexistent network connection could be one of the causes of the error message. Check the Wi-Fi or cellular data bandwidth and speed. Check Twitter’s Servers: Checking Twitter’s servers should be your first step if Twitter DM is not functioning. The majority of Twitter issues are brought by servers being down for routine maintenance or by an unanticipated malfunction. Visit the page dedicated to monitoring the state of Twitter’s services, or try checking Twitter Support’s official page for updates to check the servers. On the other side, you may also use third-party websites like Downdetector, which shows the current status of Twitter’s servers and any problems they’ve had recently. Update the Twitter app: Ensure that the Twitter app is running in the most recent version. Search for the Twitter app in the Google Play Store or the App Store to check if an update is available. Send a DM again after installing the most recent version. Open Twitter on a web browser: Sometimes, an app error may be the cause of the “Cannot get messages at this time” error. Try sending a DM on Twitter using a web browser to see if the error notice still appears. Check security features: Check your phone’s settings to see if you’ve taken away any permissions from the Twitter app that might be the source of the issue. Make sure no network firewall is interfering with the app’s correct operation. The Twitter app’s capacity to communicate with its servers may be the root of the error message if you tried all of the aforementioned changes but were still unable to resolve the problem. In this instance, until Twitter fixes the issue from their end, you won’t be able to send or receive any messages or see any Tweets.
5. A Twitter Glitch Is Preventing You From DM’ing
It could be a technical problem that stops you from sending a message to someone on Twitter if they haven’t blocked you and you are both following each other. Sending a DM to someone else can help you determine whether a bug is to blame for the error message. You can be certain that a bug is to blame if you continue to receive the error message “You can no longer send messages to this person.” However, some Android users have complained that Twitter has continued crashing on their phones lately for no apparent reason. And this might be just as annoying as passing on a huge offer. Fortunately, there is a solution available when problems related arise.
Fix One: Check Your Network Connections
One of the potential causes of it can be a shaky network connection. Make sure your smartphone has a strong network connection and that your network is stable. Therefore, whether the other apps on your smartphone are functioning properly or not, if other apps on your smartphone are also having issues, you will need to fix them by switching your data on and off.
Fix Two: Update Twitter
Make sure Twitter is up to date if you’re using it. Because an outdated version of Twitter can prevent the Twitter application from functioning, find the play store on your Android phones or App Store on your iPhones and update your Twitter application there. Use the web version of the Twitter program if you believe that is what is causing the issue. If everything went as planned, your smartphone application has a bug that has to be fixed. You can confirm by uninstalling and reinstalling Twitter on your phone, or you’ll need to bypass your phone app straight now. As a final resort, consider using a web browser only to visit Twitter (like Chrome). While the problem is being fixed, you can immediately learn a few things by avoiding the app. But if the issue also exists on the web version of Twitter. It suggests that Twitter might be to blame for the issue. To be certain, you can also log in from different networks or gadgets.
Fix Three: Force the Twitter App To Stop
If Twitter keeps stopping on your phone, there may have been a brief technical issue that affected the program. To repair this, you may only need to restart the Twitter app, which you can do with a few clicks. Just carry out these actions.
- Find Settings in your app drawer, click on it, then choose Apps & Notifications. From the list, select the option to display all apps.
- Click on Twitter after scrolling down to discover it.
- Press Force Stop to end the Twitter app right there.
- Then, try opening Twitter again to see if it functions perfectly now, or keep reading for the next solution.
Fix Four: Clear the Cache on the Twitter App
Clearing the cache is another method for repairing glitches in the Twitter app. Like other Android apps, Twitter temporarily stores some data in a cache to speed up performance and consume fewer system resources when you see a tweet again. But despite how beneficial it is, it could lead to issues when it’s excessive or corrupted. If so, deleting the cache can make your Twitter app functional once more. Just carry out these actions.
Fix Five: Get Help from the Twitter Support
You can contact Twitter support and explain your issue in detail if the troubleshooting techniques described above do not work. To fix this problem, you could alternatively hire an IT expert. The typical troubleshooting process is over if none of the steps above succeed in fixing the problem.
Conclusion
There is still a real need for private connections, even in a world where public sharing has become the norm. Twitter is what’s going on and what’s being discussed right now, and Twitter is of the opinion that genuine change begins with dialogue. Twitter Direct Messages (DMs) tweet that are only seen by the recipient and you. For some users who register for a new Twitter account, your settings may already be configured to accept message requests from users you don’t follow. Until you accept them, these requests are kept apart from your other DMs. Twitter has made it simple to send messages. If you follow a Twitter user, you can start a private chat with them (irrespective of whether the person follows you or not). Similar to this, any of your followers can send you a direct message on Twitter.
