As has been rumored for some time, Twitter is adjusting the rule that limits tweets to 140 characters. We’ve been hearing variations on the rumor that the 140-character limit would be going away, and the most recent variation ended up being the right one. We heard last week that today could be the day for the changes to be implemented, and that turned out to be correct.
Twitter won’t count some things toward character count
In general, tweets will still be limited to 140 characters, but now some items will not count toward the character limit. Media attachments such as images, polls, videos and GIFs will be excluded from the character count. Twitter is also excluding quoted tweets, although links will still be counted toward the character limit.
https://twitter.com/twitter/status/777915304261193728
Additionally, the micro-blogging platform is testing replies that exclude the username of the person who is being replied to via tweet, reports The Verge. However, users who reply to more than one person with a tweet will find that only the username of the person who tweeted the original message is excluded from the 140-character limit.
The changes to tweets begin rolling out to users today; although you might not currently be seeing the changes, you should get expanded tweets pushed to your account soon.
Twitter remains true to itself
Twitter has been struggling to remain true to its identity of concise social media posts while also making its platform easy enough for new users to pick up and enhancing the user experience. According to The Verge, the micro-blogging platform scrapped a design that allowed posts of up to 10,000 characters because allowing for such long tweets runs counter to its identity.
Management said in May that they would be adjusting the 140-character limit for tweets, so today’s rollout finally makes that promise a reality.
Twitter shares slipped by as much as 3.69% to $18.40 during regular trading hours on Monday.