How can I tell which users the current user can send messages to?

[fields]

I’ve read this post:

API Updates for Direct Messages Rules

Updated June 1, 2015 API access to update this setting has been restricted to whitelist access only. If your app requires access, you can apply for "can_dm" access using this form. The setting can still be accessed by the user through their settings on twitter.com. Today we’re updating the Direct Messages experience on the Twitter iPhone app, Android app and Twitter.com to enable users to create private conversations on Twitter more easily. More specifically, we are giving users the option…

which describes the changes to the messaging API to support setting account settings for the current user to allow non-followers to message them, but I don’t see anything in there about how to figure out if a specific user (or group of users) will allow the current user to send messages to them.

For example, say I have a list of 100 users. How can I tell which of those 100 users can receive messages from the current user? Is there a new API call for this that I’m missing? This information doesn’t seem to have been added to the user object (users/lookup).

[mpowerj]

We are also affected adversely by this update, as we do not know how to determine if a given user can be DMd or not.

For example, a user mentions one of our app’s brands. Our app’s brand wants to DM that user back. The user allows DMs from anyone. But, we have no way of determining this.

We need to have a way to check allow_dms_from for all users not just the authed users. Natively this is easily seen (is there a Message button or not).

[richardhyland]

I’m also finding that post request to account/settings.json with allow_dms_from set to anyone is not actually changing the status.

It always returns following in response.

[richardhyland]

It looks like either the documentation or the API is incorrect. The API doesn’t return or accept ‘anyone’ but ‘all’ cc: @andypiper

[joncipriano]

@fields / @mpowerj,

You still have the ability to reach the same users and the same number of users via DM before this update. The rule that you can DM a user who follows you is still in place. Your app will function as it always has with the same user reach.

Determining if a user accepts DMs from all is not available via the public API. If you are a trusted partner please reach out via your direct Twitter contacts for details.

@richardhyland, make sure your are actually sending a POST request to change the settings. I made this mistake myself and it was driving me crazy that the setting was not changing. If you are still having an issue, please start a new thread as it is not specifically related to the issue originally discussed here. Thanks!

[joncipriano]

@mpowerj, another note on your specific use case. Your situation is actually a great opportunity to use this new feature.

In your case, I would reply via public Tweet asking the user to DM you. Your account should take advantage of the new allow DMs from all setting. This way the user intentionally initiates the private conversation and you should be able DM back once the conversation has started. This is the flow I would recommend for a brand account. Hope that helps.

[abraham]

For example, a user mentions one of our app’s brands. Our app’s brand wants to DM that user back. The user allows DMs from anyone. But, we have no way of determining this.

If you know you want to DM someone, you can just try sending the message. It will either work and the DM is sent or it will fail and you can surface that to the user.

[richardhyland]

Hi @joncipriano sending a POST with anyone didn’t change anything but sending it with ‘all’ works (in actual fact the GET to account/settings.json returns all when you turn it on via Twitter web too)

[joncipriano]

@richardhyland, just tried myself again and you are correct. Will update the announcement post and the coming docs. Thanks very much!

[adrienjarthon]

Hi,

We just saw the can_dm field in the frienship/show API and were surprised not to find any documentation about it, not a single reference in the direct_messages/new neither.

We tried to use it to find if we can send DM to someone who enabled the DM from anyone option and it seems to work!

The only reference we could find is this post which says we need to be white-listed to use it. Does it mean we are ? Or is the field available to anyone now ? Because in the friendship/show documentation nothing says this field is restricted, and it is available in the API Console too.

It would be good to have a source of truth here, that we can rely on. Are we supposed to be allowed to do this ? Does it really requires white-listing ? If we can see the fields does it mean we can use it, it won’t disappear ?

Thank you.

[terpls]

Yeah the whole Twitter API is a mess. But the can_dm field seems to be working and I think it’s all fine to use it, the rate limits restrict any abusive behavior so I see no reason why we couldn’t use it.

[_clopez]

is this endpoint still working? I’m getting
TwitterForbiddenException: Twitter API returned a 403 (Forbidden), Client is not permitted to perform this action.

When setting all_account_dms