Twitter Users Can Now Get More out of 140 Characters
A staple of Twitter since its beginnings has been its 140-character limit.
Over the past few months, rumors have been flying that Twitter was about to abolish its limit, opening the door for long-form content.
Now, Twitter is indeed rolling out updates to its Tweet limits.
The 140-character maximum, however, is staying in place. Instead, Twitter is loosening the boundaries of that limit. Non-text content, such as photos and gifs, will no longer be counted against the limit.
So Tweets will still have to be short, but they can include a lot more media.
Twitter began announcing these changes back in May, and now they’re finally being rolled out.
For most users, the most important change will be that media attachments will no longer count towards the 140-character limit. Previously, attaching an image took up 24 characters, or 17% of the limit.
Now, you can attach photos, GIFs, videos, and polls without eating up extra characters. 24 characters may not seem like much, but a lot of Twitter users know how to pack a lot of punch into just a few words.
Just like media attachments, quoted tweets will no longer count towards the character limit. This update makes it a lot easier to add your own commentary to a tweet you want to share.via Twitter.
In the future, Twitter plans to stop counting user handles included in replies. Instead, replies will be viewable as a tree of conversations. This update is still being tested, however, and Twitter hasn’t announced a roll-out date yet.
The changes are small, but they appear to be a welcome update for Twitter users who can take advantage of a little extra space. The changes are in synch with Twitter’s recent emphasis on rich content, such as photos and videos. Every step that removes a barrier to adding content makes it easier for users to do more.
As of this week, Twitter’s limit on characters is still 140, but characters are no longer all you can do.
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Written by content manager Meghan Woolley
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