diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 15eb59d4..c175dd8a 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: rtweet
 Title: Collecting Twitter Data
-Version: 1.0.2.9007
+Version: 1.0.2.9008
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Michael W.", "Kearney", , "kearneymw@missouri.edu", role = c("aut"),
            comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-0730-4694")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5bb28907..83dbdeb5 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 - retryonratelimit works again on paginated endpoints (#732)
 - Fixed a bug in `auth_sitrep` due to duplicate tokens
 - Provided `rbind` and subsetting methods (`[`) for rtweet new classes
+- Fixed a bug about sending a private message (#735)
 
 # rtweet 1.0.2
 
diff --git a/R/post-message.R b/R/post-message.R
index afd82f2c..3697d9ad 100644
--- a/R/post-message.R
+++ b/R/post-message.R
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ post_message <- function(text, user, media = NULL, token = NULL) {
   ## get user id
   if (user_type(user) != "user_id") {
     user_id <- lookup_users(user, token = token)
-    user_id <- user_id$user_id[1]
+    user_id <- user_id$id_str[1]
   } else {
     user_id <- user
   }
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ post_message <- function(text, user, media = NULL, token = NULL) {
       )
     )
   )
-  
+
   if (!is.null(media)) {
     media_id <- upload_media_to_twitter(media, token = token)
     body$event$message_create$message_data$attachment <- list(
@@ -36,8 +36,8 @@ post_message <- function(text, user, media = NULL, token = NULL) {
     )
   }
 
-  r <- TWIT_post(token, "/1.1/direct_messages/events/new", 
-    body = body, 
+  r <- TWIT_post(token, "/1.1/direct_messages/events/new",
+    body = body,
     encode = "json"
   )
   message("Your DM has been posted!")
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-post-message.R b/tests/testthat/test-post-message.R
index d0c886c1..65a89066 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-post-message.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-post-message.R
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 test_that("post_message works", {
   skip("requires manual testing")
-  rt <- expect_message(
-    post_message(paste("Testing", Sys.time()), user = "Lluis_Revilla"),
+  expect_message(
+    rt <- post_message(paste("Testing", Sys.time()), user = "Lluis_Revilla"),
     "Your DM has been posted!"
   )
   expect_equal(httr::status_code(rt), 200L)
-  
+
 })