@usernames Won’t Count Towards Your Tweet’s 140 Characters

Nathan Ernest Olupot March 31, 2017

1 minute read

Micro-blogging website; Twitter Inc. on Thursday reported it had began rolling out changes to let people pack more into tweets, subtracting from the character count names of those being replied to in posts.

The latest software modification at the one-to-many messaging service comes about a year after the company removed mentions and media attachments off the 140-character limit set due to mobile phone text messaging constraints in place when Twitter launched in 2006.

According to AFP, Twitter first announced plans to relax the limit a year ago, as part of an effort to bring in more members and make the platform easier to use.

“Remember how we told you we were working on ways to let you to express more with 140 characters?” Twitter product manager Sasank Reddy said in an online post.

Now, in its new update, when you reply to someone or a group, those @usernames won’t count towards your tweet’s 140 characters providing you with more room. This has been seen as a way to encourage more use and sharing of pictures, videos, and links.

With all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations. Image Credit: Twitter

“It’s now easier to follow a conversation, so you can focus on what a discussion is about, and who is having it. Also, with all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations,” writes in a post.

Here’s how it happens:

Who you are replying to will appear above the Tweet text rather than within the Tweet text itself, so you have more characters to have conversations.
You can tap on “Replying to” to easily see and control who’s part of your conversation.
When reading a conversation, you’ll actually see what people are saying, rather than seeing lots of @usernames at the start of a Tweet.