Twitter has introduced a message button for tweets as the popularity of direct messages (DMs) grows.

In the second half of 2015, the social network saw the number of tweets shared privately grow by 200 per cent.

Twitter's product manager Somas Thyagaraja said: "With all this interest, we’ve also heard from many of you that it could be easier to share a Tweet using DMs. So now - in just a few taps - you can share unique Twitter content from your timeline right into your private conversation."

This new step for DMs follows last year's changes, when the 140-character limit was removed.

The new message button is now available on Twitter for iOS and Android, and Twitter is hoping this feature will further expand the use of the DM service.