Security News > 2023 > May > Twitter rolls out encrypted DMs, but only for paying accounts
Twitter has launched its 'Encrypted Direct Messages' feature allowing paid Twitter Blue subscribers to send end-to-end encrypted messages to other users on the platform.
End-to-end encrypted DMs on Twitter have been a sought-after and massively requested feature that was teased and retracted in 2018.
Almost half a year later, Twitter officially announced today the availability of an encrypted messages feature on the latest version of the Twitter apps for iOS and Android and on the web platform.
"The public key is automatically registered when a user logs into Twitter on a new device or browser; the private key never leaves the device and therefore is never communicated to Twitter," explains a Twitter support page for the feature.
To the disappointment of many, this new security option will only be available to users who pay for a "Verified" badge, with both conversation participants needing to be subscribed to Twitter Blue or affiliated with a verified organization for their messages to be encrypted.
Apart from leaving non-paying users out, Twitter has also informed of some limitations, like not being able to send encrypted messages to groups, only supporting text and links, not allowing new devices to join existing encrypted conversations, and only allowing a maximum of 10 registered devices per user.