No, Twitter won't notify you if someone DMs your tweets

Twitter isn't going to tattle on you if you share a tweet in a direct message, the social network has confirmed today, putting to rest an ominous rumor from the past few days. Reports had circulated over the weekend that Twitter users would be alerted if their tweets were shared through private DMs.

According to the rumor, Twitter would be adding a new notification to its roster. If another user shared a public tweet of yours with a contact through their direct messages, you'd get a notification.

That alert would only confirm who had shared the tweet, not the recipient, so the rumor went. Even so, it was enough to cause concern among many, given direct messages are among the more private ways to communicate between Twitter users. Happily, though, it's not actually something to worry about.

"You might have heard chatter about a new update that sends you a notification when someone shares your Tweet in a Direct Message," the social network said today. "This is not true."

Only likes, replies, mentions, and retweets will be included in the Notifications timeline, Twitter points out. Of course, the company also injects a few extra things of its own in there too. If you've reported another account – whether that be for suspected spam or other issues like harassment or activities that go against Twitter's term of service – Twitter will acknowledge that report in the Notifications too. It'll also update you on the outcome of that report later on.

More recently, Twitter has been experimenting with other types of alert, mainly with the goal in mind of encouraging further engagement. The Notifications tab has been used to show other "relevant" tweets, for example, such as updates from people you follow who may have been quiet for an extended time, or tweets that a number of other users have liked or retweeted.

Opinions vary as to how welcome that is. It's possible to turn on filters in Twitter notifications, like muting certain words and phrases, or switch on the Quality filter that promises to remove "lower quality content" that looks like it make have been automated. Another, lesser-seen option supports disabling alerts from certain types of account – whether that be new accounts, ones you don't follow, that don't have a custom profile photo, or which haven't verified their email address or phone number – but is only offered when an "account receives a lot of sudden attention," Twitter says.