(AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCE)

Twitter on Thursday introduced a new feature to the globally popular one-to-many text messaging service -- the ability to email "Tweets" directly from the message stream.

The new feature made its debut as the San Francisco-based firm rolled out improved applications for using the service on iPhones or smartphones powered by Google-backed Android software.

"You can retweet any (Twitter messages) to your Twitter followers, but sometimes you want to share with another group, like your college roommates or your parents or a friend who isn't yet on Twitter," engineer Stefan Filip said in a blog post.

"That's why we're introducing the ability to email a Tweet directly from twitter.com."

The feature will be rolled out to all users of Twitter -- which allows its members to post brief comments, links or pictures -- in the coming weeks, according to Filip.

Updates to Twitter applications for iPhone and Android were designed to improve search results and highlight photos, videos and news shared at the service.