The social media microblogging platform - which officially launched in February 2023 as a decentralised service and has been compared to X, formerly Twitter - has been steadily adding more features after dropping its invite-only signup 12 months after its release.

In a blog post, the company said: "You can now send direct messages (DMs) to people on Bluesky! Say hi to a friend, colleague, or a crush.

"These are private one-to-one messages directly within the Bluesky app.

"By default, your permissions allow anyone you follow to DM you. You can change these settings to allow no one or anyone to message you."

Bluesky noted that "blocked users will not be able to DM you", but users you have simply 'muted' will still be able to send messages.

Discussing its privacy policy, the team explained: "In rare cases, the Bluesky moderation team may need to open your DMs to investigate broader patterns of abuse, such as spam or coordinated harassment.

"This would only be done when absolutely necessary to keep Bluesky safe. Access is extremely limited and tracked internally.

"This first version of DMs has limited features (no images or encryption yet), but we'll be adding more safety enhancements in future updates."

DMs can be reported "directly to mods", with messages reviewing for violations of the site's Community Guidelines.

In future updates, Bluesky is hoping to introduced "images and other forms of media", as well as end-to-end encryption, group DMs and improvement to "anti-harassment and safety tooling".