De-emphasizing direct messages makes sense. Twitter is accepting its role as a mostly passive service. Having a conversation through DM requires both parties to be following each other, a frankly rare scenario when most people are following companies, organizations and celebrities or notables. You may not like it but if you make any real use of direct messages, I'm pretty sure you are an atypical user now.
In most situations, people use Timeline mentions to achieve the same thing, but without the secrecy and limitations direct messages introduce. I don't have a problem with this at all, frankly. It leaves a big opening for 3rd party clients to fill the gap, while repositioning the Twitter for iPhone app as the best choice for the mainstream Twitter user (which it wasn't previously but is as of 4.0).
It may not be in your best interests, but I think it's a smart move that's in the long term interests of the service. Twitter, from the beginning, has always been about learning from the community and observing how people use the service rather than telling them how to use the service. This is just one more lesson learned from actual users.
The rest of the UI changes are quite painful, though. I support the previously discussed changes, but overall the 4.0 update is a regression in terms of the UI.
EDIT - I write all that, then I see this in my timeline: "Twitter for iPhone pro-tip: swipe up on Me for DMs and swipe left on Me to switch accounts." I guess they found a compromise. Actually, that's pretty amazing. Nobody else has to think about DMs if they don't want to, but power users still get instant access. Great job, Twitter.
In most situations, people use Timeline mentions to achieve the same thing, but without the secrecy and limitations direct messages introduce. I don't have a problem with this at all, frankly. It leaves a big opening for 3rd party clients to fill the gap, while repositioning the Twitter for iPhone app as the best choice for the mainstream Twitter user (which it wasn't previously but is as of 4.0).
It may not be in your best interests, but I think it's a smart move that's in the long term interests of the service. Twitter, from the beginning, has always been about learning from the community and observing how people use the service rather than telling them how to use the service. This is just one more lesson learned from actual users.
The rest of the UI changes are quite painful, though. I support the previously discussed changes, but overall the 4.0 update is a regression in terms of the UI.
EDIT - I write all that, then I see this in my timeline: "Twitter for iPhone pro-tip: swipe up on Me for DMs and swipe left on Me to switch accounts." I guess they found a compromise. Actually, that's pretty amazing. Nobody else has to think about DMs if they don't want to, but power users still get instant access. Great job, Twitter.