Ending September this year, Micro-blogging website; Twitter Inc. announced it had started a small public test that allows a few of its users to go beyond the current 140 character limit for tweets, allowing them to go as high as 280 characters. That being the past now, the micro-blogging firm on Tuesday official announced via its tweet page, that it had doubled the 140 limit for tweets to 280 characters, a bid to draw in more users and boost engagement at the social network.
We’re expanding the character limit! We want it to be easier and faster for everyone to express themselves.
More characters. More expression. More of what’s happening.https://t.co/wBpYdy1K40
— Twitter (@Twitter) November 7, 2017
This becomes the first time the tweet character cap has been raised since the foundation of Twitter 11 years ago.
The change is giving users twice the space to voice their thoughts ushers in a new era for the online platform, whose hallmark 140-character cap had encouraged users to craft succinct missives.
However, the San Francisco-based social firm mentioned that the changes will be rolling out in all languages “except” Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, in which space limitations have not been an issue.
Twitter, which has been lagging behind rival social networks in user growth and struggling to reach profitability, faced a dilemma over the change in that it could alienate longtime users and transform the nature of the service.
Product Manager at Twitter; Aliza Rosen – in a press statement mentioned that the test showed most people still used 140 characters or fewer, suggesting the fast-moving nature of Twitter will not change.
“Our goal was to make this possible while ensuring we keep the speed and brevity that makes Twitter, Twitter,” Rosen said. “We’re excited to share we’ve achieved this goal and are rolling the change out to all languages where cramming was an issue.”
If you also noticed carefully, Twitter also did remove the count down meter replacing it with a fill-up circular icon. Once it fills up means that you characters have been used up.
Editor’s Note: Mobile Apps can update to receive this update.
