[txcwpalpha]

I don't mean this in any kind of condescending way, but I honestly think you might be in a bubble. If I was only looking at my immediate friend group, I would think the same way, as none of them use Twitter DMs at all. However, I recently met up with some old acquaintances from high school, and they use Twitter DMs and Instagram DMs as one of their main methods of communication.

There's a reason "slide into the DMs" is a saying: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/slide-into-the-dms/

[Kaveren]

Yes, introductions get made on Twitter, "slide into the DMs" does not mean that you're trying to conduct a three year romantic relationship on it. Usually people are going to get off it, and onto a real messenger application, even if they just want sex.

[txcwpalpha]

Again, I think you're in a bubble. I have met large groups of people that do exactly that.

It's also worth mentioning that it's very common for companies and celebrities to use Twitter DMs as a sort of "customer support" where they specifically ask people to send them private information via DM. I've seen tweets from utility companies where they say "Please send us a DM with your account number and we will look into your issue" [0], for example. There's the possibility for valuable information there.

0: https://twitter.com/comcastcares/status/1284358479835258881

[washicalendar]

I communicate with (counts) 4 people regular over Instagram DM. These are people I know IRL, people I have other means of messaging. For me, and from what I can tell some of my friends as well, I’m constantly switching between messaging apps for even the same person. If JS posted an Instagram story and I want to talk about it, then I just start the conversation in Instagram and this turns into a continuation of our conversation elsewhere. If I want to ask someone if they want to get food my first instinct is to open Messages/SMS but if I’ve recently (like same day) chatted with them over Facebook Messenger then I just open that app instead. I couldn’t give a damn which app I use because it’s all the same to me.

Edit: The person I would consider my “best friend” we chat 100% over Instagram DM. This is a person that I can invite myself over for dinner to, that’s how close we are in case you feel like assuming we must not be good friends if we don’t just call each other or whatever. Another of my good friends, we switch between iMessages and WhatsApp I’d say 50/50, just depending on if I’m already in WhatsApp talking to someone else and decide to message her too or not.