Twitter just updated its iOS and Android apps to add several features and enhancements, including the ability to send and receive photos via direct messages.

The new update also brings a new look to the Twitter apps for both operating systems, making it cleaner and easier to handle. Twitter is among the most popular social networks right now, serving as a means of communication and information for numerous users worldwide.

"Every day, people come to Twitter to find out what's happening in the world and talk about it. Today, we're updating our mobile apps to make this even easier," Twitter announced in a blog post on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

"For the first time, you can share and view photos via direct message (DM) on your mobile phone. We've also introduced a new tab in the navigation bar that makes it easy to access DMs - they're just one tap away from wherever you are on Twitter. You can also view photos in DMs on twitter.com."

With the new update, Twitter users on Android or iOS will be able to access Home, Activity, and Discover tabs simply by swiping in timelines. Swiping horizontally, for instance, will switch between the three aforementioned tabs.

"Now you can swipe from your Home timeline to the Discover timeline to find trends, popular Tweets and new accounts tailored for you, and then swipe to your Activity timeline to see Tweets and accounts that are popular among those you follow."

The new Twitter app further brings improved notifications, and for iOS users it also features in-app notifications whenever someone likes their tweet, sends them a DM or other such things. The app for Android, meanwhile, will allow users to enable push notifications for specific people simply by tapping on the star on someone's profile.

The updated Twitter app is already available as a free download for both platforms. Head over to the Google Play store here to get the new Twitter for Android, or visit Apple's App Store at this link to get Twitter for iOS. If you've already installed the new version, let us know how it fares in the comment section below.