The latest release of the Laconica platform (version 0.6.0) that Identi.ca is built on just saw a few major features introduced. The two most formidable changes are the ability to send direct messages between users and the ability to favorite an update. These features aren’t revolutionary by any means, but are certainly welcome changes to the federated platform.

In a quick test this morning, Mike and I determined that direct messaging can only be done on a mutual subscription basis – i.e. if I follow him and he follows me. We both pointed out the fact that we like how the Inbox and Outbox tabs are elevated above with the personal, replies, and profile tab. To send someone a message, head to their profile and click the “Send a Message” link below their avatar. From what I can tell, there isn’t a quick way to put it right into the notice box using the “d” modifier like you can in Twitter.

The favorites tab is the other major change for the platform. Again, nothing revolutionary here but it’s a step in the direction of having features that other platforms support. Personally, I don’t favorite any notices but I know there are people who do it quite a bit. To favorite a notice in Identi.ca, simply click the heart icon that’s to the right of every notice and it’ll get added to your favorites. To unfavorite a notice, click the heart again and it goes away.

There were two other features that appeared with this release. One is a feature called “Twitter Bridge” that allows users to push their notices from Identi.ca over to their Twitter account. You can find this feature in the Twitter tab of the Settings page. The other is the ability to send invitations to your friends (via email) directly from Identi.ca. You can enter any number of email addresses and include a personal message.

My burning question is this: will the ability to send private messages to users be included in the federated approach? I think it would be cool to send a message from my Identi.ca account to, say, a user of the TWiT Army.