Direct message before hiring- new beta test

[Valeria K]

Hi Abinadab and Phyllis,

Thanks for sharing your concerns. Upwork Plus clients subscribe to Plus to get access to additional business tools, so we are testing this feature with them first.

[Alexander B]

Is there a filter we can use to set which clients are able to send us direct messages?

For example, what if I only want to be messaged by clients with a verified payment method or clients who are from China? 

[Vladimir G]

Hi Alexander,

Thanks for your question. This feature doesn't include an option to filter clients beforehand based on the factors you mentioned. You can archive the message room to stop a client from contacting you, however, archiving the room doesn’t stop the client from contacting you again in the future. If you’d like to stop all messages from the client, you can choose to block them. To do so, select the extended menu (3 dots) in the Messages room with that client, and selecting “block.”  Note: When you block a client, you will not be able to receive invites from them in the future unless you unblock them.

[Abinadab A]

I second the idea of being able to opt out of or into these kindsa DMs.

[Ines H]

Oof I like this feature. Upwork's job posting form is awful - I'd love to see some metrics regarding how many clients leave a job in draft mode and never publish it because they can't be bothered with answering so many questions. (I'd also love it if Upwork would get rid of the budget requirement on fixed price job posts and categorize jobs automatically rather than asking clients to figure that stuff out)

I personally don't see any downsides to this.

A) the client is a Plus client so you have at least some assurances and safeguards from e.g. freelancers just DMing other freelancers under pretenses of hiring, or from scammers flying under Upwork's radar and "offering real jobs" through DMs

B) The client doesn't have to answer 35 questions and figure out all the specifics of their project before they can get in touch with a specialist. They can literally just fill out a "contact form" and get in touch with you -- isn't this what we all do on our websites anyway? "Hey, leave a name and a message and I'll get back to you"?

C) When the client knows he's sending a direct message to a specific, real person, chances are they'll actually write a whole lot more details about their project than they would bother to write in a job post. They most likely won't just send "Hi, this job was posted from a mobile device, sorry for typos."

As for opt-out, I don't get why you'd want this option. Isn't your goal to be contacted? It's literally like a contact form on your website, you don't have to respond to the message, and you can even straight up block the client from reaching out to you again.

To each their own I guess but thumbs up from me!

[Oleksandra P]

I'm wondering how it should work for Agencies.
Does Upwork add Agency owner to the "1:1" chat as for invites?
Does Freelancer have an ability to add Business Manager to the 1:1 chat with the client? 

[Catherine M]

I am not interested in being contacted prior to the job being posted. Too many low ball clients have wasted my time with invites in the past. I definitely don't want them reaching me by message. I don't care if all I have to do is block them once contact has been initiated. I don't want to hear from them in the first place. An opt-out feature would definitely be nice.

[Eve L]

I like this new feature. I've had clints sending me invites before and adding a lot of info or questions in the invite itself, and tell me to disregard anything in the job post, as they just had to write something to post a job, just to be able to contact me. So if they can skip that part it would be really nice! 

Thanks Upwork!

[Vladimir G]

Hi Catherine,

Thanks for your question. At this time, you can’t opt out of this test. I'll share your feedback with the team.

[Vladimir G]

Hi Oleksandra,

Thanks for posting these questions, I'll check with the team and follow-up with more information soon.