The features are fairly straightforward and combine a bit of automation with a human touch. Twitter hopes the new tools will "help businesses create rich, responsive, full-service experiences" with pre-written greetings and commonly used replies. Welcome messages are exactly what they sound like: a quick response to greet new users when they slide into a business's DMs without the need for a human to type it out. The interesting hook here is the ability to create multiple variations of the message and deep link directly to other Tweets, websites and apps.

Quick replies work much the same way, by guiding users to specific options or asking for things like existing support tickets. The idea is to use both features together, much like your old-school customer service phone tree, to save time and human effort on the company's side. According to Twitter, companies like Evernote, Spotify, Pizza Hut and Airbnb are already taking advantage of the features. Other businesses that wish get to on board can set a DM Welcome Message through the support settings page starting today, but for access to the developer APIs that power deeper integrations you'll need to apply for private beta access here.