Twitter Plans to Stop Counting Links and Photos in 140-Character Limit

[petsounds]

Is this really correct, MacRumors?

As I remember it, Twitter started out as and SMS based service and where forced to work within the 160-character limit that SMS uses. But Twitter needed 20 characters for metadata, thus 140 characters was left for the text message.

Your memory is right; MacRumors needs to correct the article. In fact, I think Twitter still supports SMS.

 

[Jess13]

Good

 

[jclo]

Is this really correct, MacRumors?

As I remember it, Twitter started out as and SMS based service and where forced to work within the 160-character limit that SMS uses. But Twitter needed 20 characters for metadata, thus 140 characters was left for the text message.

(Sidenote: I for one allways wished that Twitter would expand the limit to the same 160-character limit that SMS uses. That was a carefully picked limit, for good reasons. The extra 20 characters would make a huge difference in practice of what could be said in a tweet while still keeping Twitter close to it's main purpose – short text message).)

I was aiming for simplicity in that sentence, but I've updated the wording in the post to be clearer. Here's what Jack Dorsey had to say on the limit in a 2009 interview:

"It was really SMS that inspired the further direction -- the particular constraint of 140 characters was kind of borrowed. You have a natural constraint with the couriers when you update your location or with IM when you update your status. But SMS allowed this other constraint, where most basic phones are limited to 160 characters before they split the messages. So in order to minimize the hassle and thinking around receiving a message, we wanted to make sure that we were not splitting any messages. So we took 20 characters for the user name, and left 140 for the content. That’s where it all came from."

 

[Jess13]

I wish Twitter increased the character limit to 280 characters. 140 char is way too short to write anything. This post right here is probably too long for Twitter.

 

[garirry]

View attachment 631592​

Well, my post not modified is 163 characters, haha

 

[Jess13]

Well, my post not modified is 163 characters, haha

I’d like if Twitter’s character limit were more than 140, a 200 limit would be appreciated.

 

[WordsmithMR]

Hmm... Kinda opens the door to giant tweets comprised entirely of links, but otherwise, makes sense to me.

Likely to limit the amount of links. But I can see this being an issue if they don't.

 

[pixeltech]

It's a nice bump. I like this a lot. The 10K limit rumor was worrisome. This feels just right.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Strongly disagree. The beauty of Twitter is that tweets are short and to the point. If you want to write dissertations use Tumblr or Facebook.

Totally agree. It makes people keep it short and not bore you with unneeded details, words, or thoughts.

Piles of research, including studies by Twitter themselves, shows that SHORTER messages see more impressions (seen by more people), get more engagement, and see more link clicks.

These additional characters won't help improve the service, they'll just mean people will write longer messages that no one will read.
[doublepost=1463444822][/doublepost]

It's a nice bump. I like this a lot. The 10K limit rumor was worrisome. This feels just right.

10k characters will be fine too. It won't be in the message itself. There will still be a 140 character limit in the messages but then there will be a "Read more..." link to click to see the rest.

Just as Facebook and LinkedIn have added long-form content publishing to their sites (with Facebook Notes and LinkedIn Publisher), Twitter will go that way too. This is because it offers an opportunity to keep people on their site, rather than having them click a link and go to someone else's site to read the article. Keeping them on your site means you can show more ads and keep people active on the site. This is why LinkedIn and Facebook have added these features and why Twitter will too.

 

[iOSFangirl6001]

I wish Twitter increased the character limit to 280 characters. 140 char is way too short to write anything. This post right here is probably too long for Twitter.

My thoughts exactly. Heck I would even be happy with 160 to 250 char limit + this not counting pics/links idea but 140 is so outdated

Great! I've known they always had a firm stand on their character limit, but I've been hoping they would do this for a while.

Agreed. I get people don't want book or essay length tweets but cmon 160 to 300 characters is STILL short enough to be reasonable w/o being a book, essay , journal or blog length affair and reduces need for business , GOV or professional Twitter accounts to split important things into multiple tweets creating more clutter ( and notifications spam ) than the idea of upping characters allowed

 

[Shirasaki]

If you keep your tweets extremely concise and to the sharpest of points and do not stray in the slightest from brevity, then 140 characters

A constant practice of English writing.
[doublepost=1463448344][/doublepost]Well. When I share a post from macrumors, I still can write 138 characters of comments before sending it.
Don't know what this comes from.

 

[zorinlynx]

On the Apple II, the maximum command line entry was 256 characters. In fact, as you neared the limit, it would start beeping with every character until it eventually printed a \ upon hitting the limit and you lost your entire line.

This is how Twitter should be implemented. 256 characters. No character counter. Just BEEP BEEP BEEP as you enter the last few. If you go too far, you lose the entire thing and have to start it over.

Yes, I'm evil. Vote zorinlynx for President 2016!

 

[CFreymarc]

Why is this even news?

 

[12vElectronics]

I like that links and pictures don't count. I think @UserName shouldn't count either.

 

[vooke]

Twitter has limited space for innovation so this is a bold step

 

[yaxomoxay]

Why is this even news?

maybe because it's one of the most widely used tools in human history?

 

[neuzdotcom]

It's a sad day in the Apple World when "Mac Rumors" is about the character limit of Twitter. So Sad.

 

[aceys]

I wonder if http://i_can_take_advantage_of_this.html

@im @sure @someone @will @find @a @way @to @Slip @in @some @Extra @words @here @And @TheRE... Today would be a good day to add accounts for a bunch of common words so they can get some free mentions =)