How to Send a DM on Twitter: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

To send a DM on Twitter (X), tap the envelope icon, tap the new-message pencil, search for the person, type your message, and hit send. That is the whole flow. You can also open someone's profile and tap the envelope icon there to start a conversation directly. It takes about ten seconds once you know where the buttons are.

This guide walks through it step by step on both the app and the web, covers what to do when you cannot find the message button, and explains how to message someone who does not follow you. If you send DMs for work, the last section shows how to do it at scale without getting your account restricted.

How to send a DM on the Twitter mobile app

The app is where most people message. Here is the direct route:

1. Open the X app and tap the envelope icon (Messages) at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap the pencil / new message icon in the top right.
3. In the search box, type the person's name or @handle and select them from the results. You can add more than one person to start a group.
4. Type your message in the box at the bottom.
5. Tap Send (the paper-plane icon).

[SCREENSHOT: X mobile app Messages screen with the new-message pencil icon highlighted]

The faster route if you are already on someone's profile: tap the envelope icon near the Follow button on their profile, and the conversation opens straight away.

How to send a DM on Twitter on the web

On x.com in a browser, the layout is different but the steps mirror the app:

1. Click Messages in the left-hand navigation menu.
2. Click the new message icon (the pencil in a box) at the top of the Messages panel.
3. Search for the person by name or @handle and select them.
4. Type your message in the field at the bottom of the conversation.
5. Press Enter or click the send arrow.

Same as mobile, you can also open a profile, click the envelope icon, and start there. For a fuller walkthrough of the inbox and every messaging feature, see our complete guide to DMing on Twitter.

What to do when the message button is missing

The most common frustration is opening a profile and finding no envelope icon at all. This almost always means one thing: that person only accepts DMs from people they follow.

X has a privacy setting that controls who can message you. If someone has left it on the default, the restrictive option, you simply cannot start a direct message with them unless they follow you back. There is no workaround. The other reasons the button might be gone:

• They blocked you. If you are blocked, you cannot message or see much of their activity.
• You hit your daily limit. If you have sent a lot of DMs recently, X may be throttling you. Our guide to the Twitter direct message limit explains the caps and how they reset.
• The account restricted messaging. Some accounts turn DMs off entirely.

If you are hitting a hard block inside an existing conversation instead, that is a different issue, covered in our fix for the you can no longer send messages to this person error.

How to DM someone who doesn't follow you

You can message people who do not follow you, but only if they have opted in. X has a setting that allows message requests from anyone. When it is on, your DM lands in their message requests folder, a separate tab from their main inbox, where they can accept, ignore, or block it.

This matters for anyone doing outreach. A cold DM to someone you do not know goes to requests, not their primary inbox, and plenty of people rarely check requests. That is not a reason to give up. It is the reason follow-ups exist: a polite second message a few days later often surfaces a request that got buried.

Once you send a message, you can also tell whether the person opened it, thanks to read receipts. Our guide on how to know if someone read your DM explains exactly what the "Seen" label does and does not reveal.

Sending photos, GIFs, and group DMs

A direct message is not limited to text. Inside any conversation you can:

• Attach a photo or video by tapping the image icon next to the message box, then picking from your camera roll or gallery.
• Send a GIF by tapping the GIF button and searching for one. GIFs and media do not count against the 10,000-character message limit.
• Add emoji from the emoji picker, same as anywhere else on X.
• Start a group DM by adding more than one person in the new-message search box. Everyone in the group sees every message.

For outreach, keep attachments minimal. A clean text message with one clear ask outperforms a DM stuffed with images, and media can make a first message look like a pitch before the person has any reason to trust you.

How to send DMs at scale (the right way)

Sending one DM is easy. Sending a hundred personalized DMs to the right people, without getting flagged, is a different problem. X has no built-in way to bulk-send messages, and copy-pasting the same text to a big list is the fastest way to get an account restricted, because identical messages sent in bursts are the clearest spam signal there is.

The safe approach looks like this:

• Send one at a time, spread across the day. Never blast. A steady pace looks human.
• Personalize every message. Merge in the person's name or something specific so no two are identical.
• Follow up without nagging. One or two spaced follow-ups, each sent only if they have not replied, and everything stops the second they answer.
• Stay inside safe daily limits per account. Scale by adding accounts, not by pushing one past its limit.

Doing that by hand every day is not realistic. This is exactly what XAutoDM automates: it builds a lead list from a profile's followers or a keyword search, sends personalized DMs one by one inside safe daily limits, follows up until someone replies, and tracks every conversation in a reply inbox. If turning DMs into booked calls is the goal, our Twitter lead generation playbook is the full system.

The short version

Sending a DM on Twitter comes down to the envelope icon, the new-message pencil, and a search box, on both mobile and web. If the button is missing, the person almost certainly limits messages to people they follow. If you want to message strangers who opted in, expect your DM to land in their requests folder, which is why follow-ups matter.

And if you send DMs for business, do it slowly, personally, and inside X's limits. Start free with XAutoDM, one account, no card required, and turn manual messaging into a repeatable outreach system.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I send a DM on Twitter?

Tap the envelope icon at the bottom of the app or in the left menu on web, tap the new-message pencil, search for the person, select them, type your message, and hit send. You can also open someone's profile and tap the envelope icon there to start a direct message straight away.

Why can't I send a DM to someone on Twitter?

Usually because that person has not enabled messages from people they do not follow. If the envelope icon is missing on their profile, they only accept DMs from accounts they follow. Other causes are that they blocked you, you hit your daily DM limit, or the account has restricted messaging.

Can I send a DM to someone who doesn't follow me?

Yes, if they have turned on the setting that allows message requests from anyone. Your DM then lands in their message requests folder rather than their main inbox. If that setting is off, the envelope icon will not appear and you cannot message them directly.

Where do Twitter DMs from strangers go?

Messages from people you do not follow land in a separate message requests tab inside your inbox, not your primary Messages list. You can accept, delete, or block from there. Many people rarely check requests, which is why cold outreach needs good follow-ups.

How do I send the same DM to many people?

X has no built-in way to bulk-send personalized DMs, and blasting identical messages by hand gets accounts flagged. A tool like XAutoDM sends personalized messages one by one inside safe daily limits, with follow-ups that stop when someone replies, so it looks human and stays inside X's rules.