Talking to a company's customer support rep isn't often a pleasurable experience, and sometimes it's made even more automated and less personal when getting replies from a nondescript "support" or "help" social media or email account without a face or name. That's an issue you could face on Twitter, when multiple reps are in charge of a company's account and presence, but depending on the company's policy, they either hide in anonymity or have to remember to sign messages with their initials or names to seem more approachable to users.

Now Twitter is making the long overdue changes to its Direct Message API that would allow businesses to differentiate between the humans — and even bots — replying to a customer's message.