Twitter is changing and how! The social media giant has surprised its users by increasing the character count to 280 from 180. Needless to say, but this has caused the Twitterati to go into a celebratory mood.
Many users are happy that this will broaden their horizon to express more in a single tweet while some are just bothered about trolls getting a bigger space to grill others. Twitter CEO marks this transition as “a small change, but a big move for us.”
Notably, the character limit won't be extended for some languages such as Japanese, Korean and Chinese as they convey more in fewer characters. That being the reason, East Asian users never actually complained about the 180 character limit too as it was more than enough for them. Twitter notes that "in all markets, when people don't have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting -- which is awesome!".
How many characters people tweet: English vs. Japanese https://t.co/GFV6CSV4Fv pic.twitter.com/r4YbBJ6mmI
— Alexandre Afonso (@alexandreafonso) September 26, 2017
Twitter's character limit has often led its users to go to Facebook instead for expressing their thoughts as it is pretty hard to squeeze your words in just 140 characters. Even Twitter regards that pain and notes in its blog,"Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet -- we've all been there, and it's a pain."
This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu
— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017
The news about the new character limit spread like wildfire and as expected, Twitterati reacted with amazing tweets. Some users even asked Twitter for more features while some resorted to expressing how Mr. Trump will use Twitter now. When you think of it, we may get to see better masterpieces coming from @POTUS.
Here are some golden tweets from users, reacting to the extended character count:
Brevity's been the soul of Twitter, for me. The 140-character limit has been a masterclass in concision and economy
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) September 26, 2017
The 280-character limit is a terrible idea. The whole beauty of Twitter is that it forces you to express your ideas concisely (1/47)
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) September 26, 2017
Twitter users: Could you do something about online harassment?
Twitter: No, but now those bullies can use 2x as many characters per Tweet!
— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) September 26, 2017
Close your eyes.
Imagine Trump using Twitter.
Now imagine Trump using Twitter with 280 characters.
Now close Twitter.
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) September 26, 2017
The natural order of the Internet has been disrupted. #280characters pic.twitter.com/gHDJwnZYkq
— Rhett & Link (@rhettandlink) September 27, 2017
Not all Twitter users have access to the new character limit just yet as Twitter is currently rolling it out to select users. It may take some time for everyone to cherish the extended character count. You may get selected randomly by Twitter to test it.
