Category: Twitter

Twitter is making a major shift in how it counts characters in Tweets, allowing tweets to become much expanded and relaxing its defining 140-character limit. Although no official announcement has been forthcoming, it’s been widely reported this week, that the microblogging site will soon stop counting photos and links as part of its limit for messages. Links currently take up to 23 characters of a tweet, reducing the space available to users when sharing online content.

When it launched in 2006, Twitter’s character limit was originally devised as a way of fitting tweets into the SMS character limit. so users could send and receive updates on their phone. Being able to condense thoughts and messages into 140 characters has become one of Twitter’s most defining features. When the suggestion was floated earlier this year that it might expand the limit to 10,000 characters limit, my heart sank. Limiting tweets to 140 characters  is a terrific way to hone your key messages. Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey once described the limit as a “beautiful constraint” that “inspires creativity and brevity”. It also means you can quickly scan through timeline tweets – imagine trying to do that when 10,000 character tweets start flooding in!  However, this new move is a welcome compromise in my opinion.  It allows for more flexibility without compromising the creativity and brevity many of us have come to value.

What do you think of this news? Do you welcome the expanded capacity to tweet more.