What Are Twitter @Replies?
When you want to reply publicly to someone on Twitter, use @reply at the beginning of your tweet. You should also know how to send a private message on Twitter when you don’t want everyone to see your conversation. On Twitter, @reply is a way to reply to something a specific person posted. A typical @reply would look like this: @username message. For example, if you send a message to @linroeder, your @reply would look like this:
@linroeder How are you?
When someone replies to one of your posts using @reply, the tweet shows up on your profile page under Tweets & replies.
What’s a Direct Message?
Twitter DMs are private messages that can only be read by the individuals you send them to. To access your Direct Messages in the Twitter app, tap the Envelope at the bottom of the screen. To send a DM, tap the New Message icon.