Twitter Rolls Out Encrypted DMs For Verified Users

Micro-blogging platform Twitter has rolled out encrypted Direct Messages (DMs) for users with Blue subscription in an early-access launch.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk had teased about releasing such a feature along with video and voice calls on the platform earlier this week.

Encrypted DMs are expected to show up as separate conversations, alongside the existing Direct Messages in a user’s inbox on Twitter.

These encrypted DMs are secured by a combination of strong cryptographic schemes to encrypt every single message, link and reaction that are part of an encrypted conversation before they leave the sender’s device. They remain encrypted while stored on Twitter’s infrastructure.

“Once messages are received by the recipient devices, they are decrypted so that they can be read by the user,” explained Twitter’s blog post on encrypted DMs.

For now, encrypted messages can only be sent to a single recipient. “We’ll soon be expanding this feature to group conversations,” Twitter said.

How Does It Work?

Twitter apps on iOS, Android and Web will generate a pair of device specific keys, called private and public key pair.

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.

In addition to the private-public key pairs, there is a per conversation key that is used to encrypt the content of messages. The private-public key pairs are used to exchange the conversation key securely between participating devices.

An encrypted message can only include text and links; media and other attachments are not supported yet. 

Eligibility For Encrypted DM

A Twitter user must have Blue subscription, which starts at USD 8 per month, or USD 84 a year.