Twitter doubles the number of tweet characters to 280
The microblogging platform loses one of its main features doubling the characters that can be written on every single tweet.
Twitter began testing a new type of tweet with a maximum limit set to 280 characters, a new maneuver that revolutionizes the fundamental characteristic that has always distinguished the service compared to other social platforms. A small percentage of the 330 million users has since Tuesday the opportunity to publish tweets longer than in the past, while all users can view this new type of content in their timeline.
The test is extended all over the world, with the exception of posts in Japanese, Chinese and Korean that do not use the letters and are rarely limited by the restrictions in force up to now. Since the beginning, eleven years ago, one of the bases of Twitter was the limit of 140 characters for each individual content. Since last year, the company has excluded photos, surveys and quotes in the calculation of characters, but the restrictions in the characters have always been a fixed point.
It will be to see what the reaction of the service user will be, which has historically poorly digested the small changes made previously. The shortness of content has always been seen as one of Twitter’s few strong points against the most verbose competition, and the company itself knows that doubling the limits could generate widespread discontent from the historical user. However, Aliza Rosen suggested that change will be accepted by everyone.
” We understand that those who have been using Twitter for years could be emotionally involved with the limit of 140 characters, and we too are “, he said. ” But we tried this new thing and we already saw what powers it gives, and we fell in love with this new limitation “. Users with early access to the feature were chosen randomly, and have not yet been announced when the news will be expanded to everyone.
Rosen further stated: ” Although we are confident of your response and the positive impact that this change will have, we want to try it first on a small group of people in order to decide when to launch it for everyone “. The limit was chosen at the beginning because it was expected that among the vehicles to send the tweets, there were text messages (with a limit of 160 characters), negotiating a maximum of 140 characters to leave space to the user name.
