Twitter will now allow you to review Direct Messages received from people who you don’t follow before responding to them in a consolidated inbox, adopting a feature that Facebook has long used for its own messaging feature and app. The new DM review inbox function works for anyone who’s turned on the setting that allows receipt of messages from people they don’t follow, and will let you choose to either “Delete” or “Accept” inbound messages.

Those sending the messages won’t be able to see if you’ve viewed them or not until you choose the “Accept” option, and even if you delete a message that won’t stop that user from messaging you again in the future (that’s what “block” is for).  You also won’t be able to see media sent from people you don’t follow until you choose the “Accept” option, which is a good way to help prevent nasty image or video surprises. You can opt to reveal the media prior to accepting the message, too, giving you one more level of mediation.

New conversations from people you don’t follow will be flagged as “Requests” in the new inbox in the Messages tab in Twitter on iOS, Android today, and on Twitter.com soon, and that includes new group conversations you’re included on. It’s a smart way to encourage people to open up DMs and keep DMs open, while also giving them a measure of protection against unwanted communication, including potential abuse.

You may have already seen this feature as it’s been rolling out gradually, but if not take a peek since it should be available soon on mobile apps.