How to DM on X: Limits, Requests, and Messages That Get Replies

How to DM someone on X (web)

How to DM on iPhone and Android

1. 1

   Tap the envelope (or Chat) icon

   It sits in the bottom bar and opens your inbox.
2. 2

   Tap the new message icon

   Type a name or @username. Add more people to start a group, up to 256 in one conversation.
3. 3

   Write your message and send

   Tap the paper airplane on iPhone or the send icon on Android. You can attach a photo, video or GIF from the plus icon.

Sent something wrong? You can edit a sent DM up to 5 times, with no time limit. X shows “Edited” under it. Deleting a regular DM only removes it from your side. The other person still sees it. Both rules are on X’s Direct Messages help page. In an encrypted Chat you can unsend instead. That removes the message from their inbox too (About Chat).

DMs, Chat or XChat: what is it called now?

All three are the same inbox. In November 2025, X started rolling out Chat on iOS and the web to replace its basic DMs. It added encryption, file sharing and calls (Engadget, Nov 14, 2025). On April 24, 2026 it launched a standalone XChat app for iPhone (TechCrunch). X’s help center still documents both: “Direct Messages” for the basics and About Chat for the encrypted version. So your app may say Messages or Chat. The steps are the same.

If you reach out to strangers, know this: a message request is not encrypted until the other person accepts it. Keep anything private out of a first message.

Who can DM you, and who you can DM

You can always message people who follow you. For everyone else, their settings decide. Here are all the rules, from X’s Direct Messages and Chat pages:

To open your own inbox, go to Settings and privacy, then Privacy and safety, then Direct Messages, and choose who can send you requests. Build in public and want customers or collaborators to reach you? Open it at least to Verified accounts. You can also share an X Number. It is a private code that lets someone message you even when your inbox is closed.

X DM limits in 2026

X lists two DM limits, on two different help pages. They count different things. X does not say how they fit together, so here is what each page says.

Sources: About Chat, About X limits and About Direct Messages, all checked October 12, 2026. Hit a limit and X shows an error naming it. You can send again once the period has passed.

How the DM rules changed, 2023 to 2026

Another guide has different numbers? Check its date. The rules changed several times:

Why your DMs go unseen

Most cold DMs never get opened. A DM to someone who does not follow you does not ping their phone like a message from a friend. Here is where it goes:

So your request has to win a click from one preview line. No media shows. It often sits in a folder the person checks once a week. And you get no signal. X says the sender does not know a request was seen until it is accepted. Silence is not a no. Usually it was never opened.

A cleverer first line will not fix this. Being a name they already know will. Reply to their posts for a few weeks first, the way the reply guy strategy describes. Once they follow you back, your DM skips Requests and lands in their inbox.

How to write a DM that gets a reply

Same rule as networking on X: give them a reason to answer that is about them. And make answering take ten seconds.

Weak vs stronger, side by side

Illustrative examples written for this guide, not real messages.

The follow-up

One follow-up after a week is fine if it adds something new, like a result, a link they asked for or an answer to their question. “Just bumping this” adds nothing. Still no reply? Go back to replying in public. X sets the same bar for bots. Its automation rules say: once a user-started conversation ends, no more DMs without permission.

What I do

ClimbX got to its first $1k in monthly revenue without cold DMs. I posted and replied in public. The DMs I do send go to people who already signed up. They follow the shape above: one line on why I am writing (“saw you signed up and did not finish onboarding”), then one question (“what was the thing for you?”). Nothing to click, nothing to buy. Want to turn conversations into customers? The steps are in how to get your first SaaS customers from X.

Why not mass DMs or auto-DM tools

Auto-DM tools show up for this search because sending 200 DMs a day sounds like a shortcut. On X it is mostly risk.

The math does not work either. You get 7 requests a day on a free account and 35 on Premium. Volume is capped anyway. Spend the few you have on people you already talked to in public.

That is also why ClimbX does not send DMs, and never will. It drafts posts in your voice, based on what works for accounts a few times your size. It also finds posts in your niche worth replying to. You edit and send every reply and every message yourself.

Frequently asked questions