Twitter to Drop Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit

[MacRumors]

Twitter announced today that it will be making a number of expected changes to simplify tweets over the coming months.

First and foremost, when replying to a tweet, Twitter handles such as @MacRumors will no longer count toward the 140-character limit. Media attachments, like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets, will also no longer be counted.

The changes should provide Twitter users, including brands and websites, with more characters for actual text and article headlines.

Meanwhile, new non-reply tweets that begin with a username will now reach all of a user's followers, eliminating the need to use the ".@" convention to broadcast a tweet widely. Last, Twitter users will be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet their own tweets.

Twitter expects the changes to have a significant impact on tweets, so the microblogging service aims to provide its developer partners with time to make any needed updates to products built using the Twitter API.

Article Link: Twitter to Drop Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit

 

[Brookzy]

Headline would more accurately be "Twitter will drop...". Nothing happening for a few months.

EDIT: The article's headline has been revised since I posted this.

 

[petertretyakov]

class Tweet < ActiveRecord::Base
validates :content, length: { maximum: 150 }
end

You're welcome ))

 

[cerote]

Lol. This is considered breaking news on CNN.

 

[Dilster3k]

Oh em gee, my life and purpose has forever changed its course for all eternity.

Jokes, I don't use Twitter.

 

[Gaspode67]

The decision to drop the .@ convention is a bad decision. People have different groups of friends on Twitter. My Rugby frinds don't need to know what I'm saying to my friends from when I was at or vice versa. Neither of those groups will want to have the tweets I send to Photography friends suddenly forced into their timelines. This will clog up peoples' timelines with stuff they're not interested in. Plus, it will become even easier for online trolls and bullies to whip up a frenzy by broadcasting their abuse to all their followers automatically. Twitter need to re-think this part o their proposed changes.

 

[needfx]

how may tweets can I fit in a tweet without blowing the tweet off?

 

[12vElectronics]

Looking forward to this. The few extra characters will make a big difference

 

[mms13]

Sooooo theoretically you could spam @ mention every single user on twitter in a single tweet. This sounds like a pretty horrible idea.

 

[shuttersny]

Twitter announced today that it will be making a number of expected changes to simplify tweets over the coming months.

First and foremost, when replying to a tweet, Twitter handles such as @MacRumors will no longer count toward the 140-character limit. Media attachments, like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets, will also no longer be counted.

The changes should provide Twitter users, including brands and websites, with more characters for actual text and article headlines.

Meanwhile, new non-reply tweets that begin with a username will now reach all of a user's followers, eliminating the need to use the ".@" convention to broadcast a tweet widely. Last, Twitter users will be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet their own tweets.

Twitter expects the changes to have a significant impact on tweets, so the microblogging service aims to provide its developer partners with time to make any needed updates to products built using the Twitter API.

Article Link: Twitter to Drop Handles and Media Attachments From 140-Character Limit

[doublepost=1464107139][/doublepost]Alright we've been hearing this since beginning May

Do it already!

It won't revolutionize the world
It won't effect the brevity some people like
but it will make a cogent complete comment possible

Get it done

 

[macduke]

The decision to drop the .@ convention is a bad decision. People have different groups of friends on Twitter. My Rugby frinds don't need to know what I'm saying to my friends from when I was at or vice versa. Neither of those groups will want to have the tweets I send to Photography friends suddenly forced into their timelines. This will clog up peoples' timelines with stuff they're not interested in. Plus, it will become even easier for online trolls and bullies to whip up a frenzy by broadcasting their abuse to all their followers automatically. Twitter need to re-think this part o their proposed changes.

The way I understand what the article said is that replies will still be hidden, but if you start a new tweet with a username it will be broadcast to everyone. I think the point is that if you don't want people see what you're writing to your friends, just DM them.

Looking forward to this. The few extra characters will make a big difference

Yeah, any time I'm out with a group of people and we try to mention everyone in a photo it takes up all the characters.

Sooooo theoretically you could spam @ mention every single user on twitter in a single tweet. This sounds like a pretty horrible idea.

Hopefully they put a cap on how many users you can mention at a time. I think 20-30 would be reasonable. Maybe if someone is constantly hitting near the cap, it could flag those users for review to make sure they're not spammers.

What @I @worry @about @are @All @of @the @morons @That @will @inevitably @try @to @write @Huge @twitter @novels @by @just @using @tons @of @UserName @mentions. It @will @be @so @freaking @difficult @to @Read @And @annoying @to @All @of @the @people @mentioned.

EDIT: Sorry to all the MacRumors members mentioned in this post, lol. I didn't even know you could do mentions on here! Did they add that last summer with the overhaul?

 

[0098386]

Sooooo theoretically you could spam @ mention every single user on twitter in a single tweet. This sounds like a pretty horrible idea.

No, the limit is 50 users.

 

[Sheza]

The decision to drop the .@ convention is a bad decision. People have different groups of friends on Twitter. My Rugby frinds don't need to know what I'm saying to my friends from when I was at or vice versa. Neither of those groups will want to have the tweets I send to Photography friends suddenly forced into their timelines. This will clog up peoples' timelines with stuff they're not interested in. Plus, it will become even easier for online trolls and bullies to whip up a frenzy by broadcasting their abuse to all their followers automatically. Twitter need to re-think this part o their proposed changes.

I was going to say that's not how it works, but you're right. The .@ convention was perfectly fine, a part of Twitter culture.

 

[ipedro]

The decision to drop the .@ convention is a bad decision. People have different groups of friends on Twitter. My Rugby frinds don't need to know what I'm saying to my friends from when I was at or vice versa. Neither of those groups will want to have the tweets I send to Photography friends suddenly forced into their timelines. This will clog up peoples' timelines with stuff they're not interested in. Plus, it will become even easier for online trolls and bullies to whip up a frenzy by broadcasting their abuse to all their followers automatically. Twitter need to re-think this part o their proposed changes.

It's only for new tweets. If I tweet @Gaspode67 should read more closely before commenting it'll reach all of my followers because it's simply a tweet that begins with a handle, not a reply. If I reply to a tweet with @Gaspode67 ok, meet you on the pitch then it will not show to all of my followers unless they follow both of us, as it worked before.

With these updates, Twitter is eliminating the need to be a twitter geek with knowledge of insider tricks in order to use the service. A lot of this twitter code turns people off. And even though I've been on Twitter from the beginning and know all of these tricks, I'll appreciate a cleaner timeline with less code and more content.

 

[Mikel30]

I thought I heard recently they were getting rid of the limits altogether?

 

[jonnysods]

Lol. This is considered breaking news on CNN.

That's 24 hour news for you!

 

[Gaspode67]

It's only for new tweets. If I tweet @Gaspode67 should read more closely before commenting it'll reach all of my followers because it's simply a tweet that begins with a handle, not a reply. If I reply to a tweet with @Gaspode67 ok, meet you on the pitch then it will not show to all of my followers unless they follow both of us, as it worked before.

With these updates, Twitter is eliminating the need to be a twitter geek with knowledge of insider tricks in order to use the service. A lot of this twitter code turns people off. And even though I've been on Twitter from the beginning and know all of these tricks, I'll appreciate a cleaner timeline with less code and more content.

I am well aware of the planned difference between tweets starting a conversation and those in reply being broadcast to all in the case of the former, and only to followers of both parties in the case of the latter. I still maintain it's a bad decision. It add more clutter in peoples timelines by posting tweets between two individuals to a third party. It's the equivalent of standing up in a pub and announcing to everyone in the room: "Hey Everyone! I'm about to talk to Fred, and this is what I'm going to say to him:.....". You wouldn't do it in real life, so why *force* it on us on Twitter. The .@ convention is hardly clutter. If anything, you are going to find your timeline more cluttered as you'll now see a lot more tweets of people you follow to people you don't follow suddenly appearing.

 

[ipedro]

I am well aware of the planned difference between tweets starting a conversation and those in reply being broadcast to all in the case of the former, and only to followers of both parties in the case of the latter. I still maintain it's a bad decision. It add more clutter in peoples timelines by posting tweets between two individuals to a third party. It's the equivalent of standing up in a pub and announcing to everyone in the room: "Hey Everyone! I'm about to talk to Fred, and this is what I'm going to say to him:.....". You wouldn't do it in real life, so why *force* it on us on Twitter. The .@ convention is hardly clutter. If anything, you are going to find your timeline more cluttered as you'll now see a lot more tweets of people you follow to people you don't follow suddenly appearing.

"@BlowfishRestaurant has the best sushi in the city!" isn't starting a conversation. It's just a tweet that happens to make sense starting with the handle. Right now, you have to use a workaround to prevent a tweet beginning with a handle from being treated as a private conversation. There's no indication that it won't be shown to your followers. Newcomers shouldn't have to learn some sort of insider geek speak to use Twitter. If you want to have a private conversation, there are direct messages.