Available Free Last reviewed: 24 Oct 2026
Direct messages connect you privately with individual accounts; you decide who may write to you without a request.
Under “Community” › “Messages” you see your conversations. With “+ New message” you start a new one: you enter the account as “DisplayName#Tag” and choose “Open conversation”. Alternatively, you choose “Send message” on a profile or in the name menu. In the conversation, you write under “Write a message…” and send with “Send”.
You control who may write to you in the account settings under “Who can send me direct messages?”, with “Everyone”, “Mutual followers only” or “Friends only”. If someone without an existing relationship writes to you, the conversation appears as a “Message request”. Until you choose “Accept”, you see no content.
You can remove any message from your own view; the other person still sees it. Messages from the other person have “Report”. Only that one message is reported, not the whole conversation.
Choose “+ New message”, enter “DisplayName#Tag” and choose “Open conversation”.
What you see afterwards: The conversation opens.
Type under “Write a message…” and choose “Send”.
What you see afterwards: The message appears in the conversation; the other person later sees “✓ Read”.
Open a message request and choose “Accept” or “Decline”.
What you see afterwards: With “Accept”, you see the messages.
Hover over a message, choose “Delete” and confirm.
What you see afterwards: The message is only removed from your view.
For a message from the other person, choose “Report” and describe the incident under “What happened?”.
What you see afterwards: The report goes to the team for review.
Direct messages are open to active accounts with author rights. Anyone who is excluded from the community because of a sanction cannot start a new conversation. Whether someone may write to you depends on your setting and on your relationship with them.
A message is kept for both people involved. “Delete” only hides it for you. If you report a message, its content goes to the team for review together with your reason, but the rest of the conversation does not. Your messages are part of your data access.
A message can have at most 10,000 characters, a report reason at most 2,000. Sending is limited in frequency; the operator sets the values. A blocked account cannot write to you. There are no reply quotes or attachments. You share manuscripts through shares, not through messages.
A message from someone who is neither your friend nor connected to you through following. You see no content until you choose “Accept”.
No. “Delete” only removes it from your view; the other person still sees it.
Yes. Whoever started the conversation can keep writing; the other side has to accept first.
Block the account or report the message. Blocking ends the contact; reporting releases the message for review.
