Twitter has unveiled a couple of changes to its Direct Message (DM) functionality, which cribs some notes from iOS and WhatsApp.

In a tweet yesterday that company release a short gif to explain the changes, and added “Direct Messages are more dynamic than ever with read receipts, typing indicators, and web link previews.”

What that means, is that users will be notified that there messages have been delivered and read with a series of ticks – as is the case on WhatsApp.

Once a message has been sent, a grey tick will indicate that the message has been delivered. From there, it will turn blue once it’s read by the recipient.

If you added more than one person to the DM conversations, the ticks only turn blue once everybody has view the message. And yes, you can add more than one person to a chat.

As far as the typing indicators are concerned, you will now see three little dots pulsating next to the person’s picture if they are busy typing a reply. It’s similar in style to iOS’s iMessage.

Web link previews should be self-explanatory, but just in case you are a bit fuzzy on that, whenever you post a like to something now in a DM, it will display a short preview of where the link goes. This is great in making sure that you have the right link, but it also gives the recipients a heads-up on what they are about to click on.

If you make use of Twitters DM system, the functionality should now be open to you.

New! Direct Messages are more dynamic than ever with read receipts, typing indicators, and web link previews. pic.twitter.com/VEU92V5Gqj

— Twitter (@twitter) September 8, 2016