Twitter Dropping Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit Starting September 19

[MacRumors]

Twitter's planned update that will make additional characters available for tweets is coming on September 19, reports The Verge. As was announced in May, Twitter will stop counting Twitter handles, photos, GIFs, polls, and other media content within the 140-character limit allowed for each tweet, leaving more room for text.

All @names, such as @MacRumors, will no longer count towards the 140-character count, nor will media attachments, retweets, or quoted tweets, but links will still eat up 23 characters.

Twitter declined to comment publicly on The Verge's leaked release date, nor is a source for the launch date given, but the change has been in the works for months. Twitter announced the news early to give its developer partners time to make any needed updates to products using the Twitter API.

Twitter has used a 140-character restriction for each tweet since it launched in 2006. Reports earlier this year suggested the microblogging site was considering eliminating the 140-character limit altogether, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later said the limit will remain in place. Still, Twitter has been exploring ways to allow people to better express themselves and has said it has additional plans to make existing uses easier and enable new ones.

Article Link: Twitter Dropping Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit Starting September 19

 

[sniffies]

Drop the character limit.

 

[dannyyankou]

Now before someone posts the inevitable "now let us edit tweets" post...

Think about it. Someone tweets something, you retweet it, then that person edits it without you're knowledge. It can create a bunch of problems.

 

[smacrumon]

Life begins starting September 19.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Drop the character limit.

No way. The character limit is what prevents massive spam posts no one wants to see.

 

[xTIMMYxCOREx]

Honestly if it were not for Donald Trump I don't think I would even remember Twitter still exists. it's so 2 years ago.

 

[uajafd]

Spam-mentions of hundreds of users per tweet starts effective September, 19.

 

[zorinlynx]

Spam-mentions of hundreds of users per tweet starts effective September, 19.

One would hope there is a limit to how many users can be @mentioned in one tweet. Otherwise this will destroy the platform.

Note this post. I will not edit it. I will refer back to it a year from now when Twitter is a smoldering ruin, if they don't implement a limit. Mark my words.

 

[autrefois]

If they're tweaking the 140 limit, they should allow for links to count for less. That's what usually does me in are the links. Maybe not having them count as 0 characters (for similar reasons given above: don't need tweets with endless links, mentions, etc) but having each link take up 23 characters limits how much you can actually say about the link(s).

 

[EgbertAttrick]

@i @hope @no @one @abuses @this @new @feature.

 

[bradl]

Drop the character limit.

Drop Twitter.

BL.

 

[Mildredop]

Now before someone posts the inevitable "now let us edit tweets" post...

Think about it. Someone tweets something, you retweet it, then that person edits it without you're knowledge. It can create a bunch of problems.

Any other non-existent posts in this thread you'd like to comment on?

 

[dsizomutt]

This is a very welcome update! Will be especially helpful for chains involving several people.

 

[dannyyankou]

Any other non-existent posts in this thread you'd like to comment on?

Ummm ok?

 

[C DM]

@i @hope @no @one @abuses @this @new @feature.

That kind of stuff doesn't happen on the Internet.

 

[Gravydog316]

Sep. 19 is my birthday-- i guess this is a present(?)
Do i want to hear more complainings from people & more spam, tho??
[doublepost=1473727975][/doublepost]

If they're tweaking the 140 limit, they should allow for links to count for less. That's what usually does me in are the links. Maybe not having them count as 0 characters (for similar reasons given above: don't need tweets with endless links, mentions, etc) but having each link take up 23 characters limits how much you can actually say about the link(s).

Yeah, there are dropping link counts too, i guess.

 

[JosephAW]

Will this break the built in Twitter support in iOS 7-10?
This would be a great way break a lot of Twitter apps and desktop applications buy throwing them all under the bus.

 

[aohus]

it took them this long to make this change? #moveslow

 

[0098386]

It's a nice step forward. Following on from the "quality content" option I'm starting to use Twitter more. I think they could get away with a weekly 10k tweet, working the same way that images do with a "click to expand" button. You could use it like a weekly zine or rant about how annoying groups like GG are.
[doublepost=1473731763][/doublepost]

it took them this long to make this change? #moveslow

It does. I still like them and use it frequently. But I also like that it hasn't changed *too* much. Sometimes I get lost in Facebook as they make big changes.

 

[C DM]

Sep. 19 is my birthday-- i guess this is a present(?)
Do i want to hear more complainings from people & more spam, tho??
[doublepost=1473727975][/doublepost]
Yeah, there are dropping link counts too, i guess.

Seems like the article says that they aren't dropping the link count.

 

[12vElectronics]

They will have to limit the @ somehow. I use Twitter ALOT and don't want it to go to the dump!

 

[Bawstun]

Been suggesting this change since literally day 1 of using Twitter. Stopped, years ago, when changes such as these weren't implemented. I mean, really. This is common-sense kinda stuff. Simply amazing.

 

[mw360]

One would hope there is a limit to how many users can be @mentioned in one tweet. Otherwise this will destroy the platform.

Note this post. I will not edit it. I will refer back to it a year from now when Twitter is a smoldering ruin, if they don't implement a limit. Mark my words.

You could try marking these words...

@names that auto-populate at the start of a reply Tweet will not count towards the character limit (but new non-reply Tweets starting with a @mention will count, as will @mentions added explicitly by the user in the body of the Tweet)

This did require reading a body of text longer than a single sentence so I can understand why it could have been missed by so many of our Twitter fans.

 

[sudo1996]

Can't people just hashtag everything (like how they already do now) and make a post of unlimited length?
[doublepost=1473747076][/doublepost]

Honestly if it were not for Donald Trump I don't think I would even remember Twitter still exists. it's so 2 years ago.

I think only old people use it.

 

[RowellE]

Drop the character limit.

No.

If they're tweaking the 140 limit, they should allow for links to count for less. That's what usually does me in are the links.

Not sure why they're still counting links when all the other stuff are not being counted. They might as well drop the link count, too.