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Twitter Will No Longer Count Usernames Towards 140-Character Limit

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Twitter today announced that usernames such as @MacRumors will no longer count towards the 140-character limit for tweets.

twitter-username-replies.jpg

Now, the usernames of anyone who a user is replying to will appear above the tweet rather than within the tweet itself, so that users have more characters to have conversations. Twitter said users will be able to tap on "Replying to..." to see and change which users are part of the conversation.

Twitter already stopped counting photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets towards the 140-character limit for tweets last September, and it removed the 140-character limit from Direct Messages in August 2015.

Twitter said this update is rolling out now on the web as well as in the Twitter app for iOS [Direct Link] and Android.

Article Link: Twitter Will No Longer Count Usernames Towards 140-Character Limit
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/30/twitter-usernames-dont-count-140-character-limit/
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Reactions: Goatllama
I wonder though if this still applies to SMS. I still get a lot of tweets via Twitter's SMS protocol (40404). If someone with a username 25 characters long posts a 140 character tweet, that's 165 and that's 5 characters longer than the single SMS limit.

Will it get truncated? Will have to test.

And I'm not alone in asking this question. Twitter & SMS was Jack's vision of allowing anyone in the world w/ a basic cell phone access to the world's largest communication platform. No data plan required just cell phone messaging. There are people in remote villages subscribed to BBC News alerts using Twitter SMS.

You can't monetize them but they're out there.
 
I used to love Twitter, then I hated it, but now it's funny to read all of Mr. Trump's tweets

586948c9c4d21f19041bbf29_o_F_v2.jpg

donald-trump-castro-tweet_1480183789558_2329458_ver1.0_640_360.jpg

:D
 
The biggest thing that will save Twitter is to allow folks to delete replies. Trollers, harassers or just plain idiots shouldn't be able to pollute the discussion that someone is trying to have. For example, if a politician wants to post something for their followers, they and their followers shouldn't have to put up with the garbage that often ensues which often just makes it impossible to have a discussion. Yes, many folks will use it to delete even constructive disagreement, but so what. You don't have to follow that person. You can post whatever you want for your followers to read, but you shouldn't be allowed to disrupt and destroy the conversation with profane, inane, etc. tweets.

If Twitter allowed this, what you would find is that most of the idiots, spammers, etc., would leave as they would not have any impact. It would be like discouraging graffiti by removing it from buildings takes away the incentive to damage property in this manner.
 
MacRumors said:
... usernames such as @MacRumors will no longer count towards the 140-character limit for tweets.
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Shameless! :D
stiligFox said:
Can't wait to be a part of 100-user spam Tweets...
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sudo1996 said:
First thing I thought of too.
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I'm glad some people have minds geared toward trolling. I didn't even think of that.
drinkingtea said:
I'm tired of writing like a child about serious issues because I can't fit in proper English owing to Twitter's character limit.
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Lrn 2 b moar efficient, scrub. [sarcasm]
 
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The count limit was a fun gimmick to start. But it's long since outdated. Remove the limit altogether. If Twitter wants to have a nod to its roots, just make us click a more button to reveal anything after the first 140 characters or something.
 
LordQ said:
I used to love Twitter, then I hated it, but now it's funny to read all of Mr. Trump's tweets

586948c9c4d21f19041bbf29_o_F_v2.jpg

donald-trump-castro-tweet_1480183789558_2329458_ver1.0_640_360.jpg

:D
Click to expand...

CarlosGQ, Is that you?

And Twitter to me, has become more of an emotional playground for those to spill their mood swings for the day. I personally have distaste for Twitter.
 
Twitter is done. It was a good run when it was about freedom. But the whole double down into promoting one sided fringe politics ruined it.
 
Now if only we could get polls inside third party clients.
[doublepost=1490915867][/doublepost]
miniyou64 said:
Twitter is done. It was a good run when it was about freedom. But the whole double down into promoting one sided fringe politics ruined it.
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I wasn't aware they were supporting Trump!
 
They still count image attachments towards the 140 characters for some users. It's a bug and it's literally impossible to contact anybody at Twitter about it.

Adding an image deducts characters. Log out and back in and the full 140 characters remain. But only for that one tweet, then it reverts.

oHzWwua.jpg
 
drinkingtea said:
Links shouldn't count, either.

The character limit should be 250 instead. I'm tired of writing like a child about serious issues because I can't fit in proper English owing to Twitter's character limit.
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I don't understand the criticisms of Twitter's character limit. It's literally *the* feature that made it what it is. Maybe it's like how Facebook used to have basically zero privacy controls and became popular in part because of that. The feature that makes you popular also is your achilles heal.
 
Seriously, Twitter should have shuttered twitter and not vine. I think this will be viewed as a tech / business misstep in the future. Too focused on themselves to realized that they are outdated. (Reminds me of AOL.)
 
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