Customer service on Twitter just got a big upgrade

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Twitter has made new tweaks that make it easier for businesses to provide customer service through direct message.

Its more relaxed rules mean that businesses can more freely reply to customers who need support without having to worry about reaching a direct message limit. Spam accounts will still find it difficult to bombard users with junk, however.

Twitter is focused on making a whole bunch of changes that will make its micro-blogging service more enjoyable for everyone. After beginning its battle against abuse last year, it made changes this week that will slowly but surely eliminate bot accounts.

Now it is improving the customer service experience over direct message.

Twitter relaxes direct message rules

A change to Twitter’s API means businesses using third-party apps to provide customer service can now reply to a direct message up to five times within 24 hours. And as soon as a customer responds, this limit is reset, so another five messages can be sent.

The changes mean you won’t have to wait as long for businesses to reply to your messages going forward. Theoretically, the chat can continue for as long as it needs to without the business reaching the direct message limit.

This is great news for businesses, which no longer have to ignore customers when they run out of replies. And for customers, who should receive more timely responses. It’s also great for Twitter, which is now a better platform for customer service.

Twitter encourages app developers to adopt the new API as soon as possible. Its old one will expire this June, at which point apps that still use the old one won’t be able to use direct messaging.

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