How to Open Your DMs on X (and Every DM Setting Explained)

Opening your DMs is one toggle. The reason this page is longer than one line is the other four settings on the same screen, which decide whether opening them was a good idea.

The path

Same on mobile and desktop:

Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety → Direct Messages

On desktop, Settings is in the left sidebar under More. On mobile, tap your avatar to open the menu, then Settings and support.

The one toggle you came for

Allow message requests from everyone. Turn it on and anyone can send you a first message.

Worth knowing what that does and does not do. Messages from people you do not follow do not land in your main inbox. They go to your Requests folder, which is a separate list you open deliberately. Opening your DMs makes you reachable; it does not flood your inbox.

The four settings that matter more

Filter low-quality messages. Leave this on. It moves suspected spam into a second folder inside Requests that you never have to look at. This is the setting that makes open DMs tolerable, and turning it off is how people conclude that open DMs are unusable.

Only accept message requests from verified users. Cuts spam a long way and cuts real people just as far, since most accounts are not verified. Sensible for a large account drowning in requests. A bad trade for anyone still building, because it removes most of the people who would have reached out.

Show read receipts. Off means you can read without signalling it. On means the same courtesy in reverse. Purely a preference, with one wrinkle for anyone doing outreach: you cannot see whether your own messages were read unless the recipient has it on, so read receipts are not a reliable measurement of anything.

Allow message requests from people you follow. Reasonably confusing, since you would expect anyone you follow to reach you already. It covers the case where they do not follow you back.

After you open them

Two habits, both about the folder rather than the setting.

Check Requests weekly. X does not push a notification for a request from a stranger. Anything that arrives there sits silently until you look.

Check the filtered layer occasionally. Open Requests, then the filtered link at the bottom. Genuine messages do land there, particularly ones containing a link. Once a month is enough to catch the misfiles. The full anatomy of that folder is in X message requests: where they are and why yours end up there.

If you are closing them instead

The reverse case is worth covering, because it is often the actual goal.

Turning Allow message requests from everyone off restores the default: only people you follow can start a thread. Existing conversations continue. Anyone you have already spoken to is unaffected.

If specific people are the problem rather than volume, block or mute individually rather than closing the door on everyone. Blocking ends the thread permanently and they will see an error the next time they try.

The setting that is not on this screen

The most common DM complaint has nothing to do with these toggles. If your messages are failing to send rather than failing to arrive, that is a limit or a restriction, not a setting. Start with why can't I send messages on X, and if your posts have also stopped showing up in search, run a shadowban test.

Short version

Settings and privacy, Privacy and safety, Direct Messages, then Allow message requests from everyone. Leave the quality filter on, because it is what keeps open DMs manageable. Verified-only cuts spam and most real people with it. Check your Requests folder weekly, since nothing about it notifies you.