Countless headlines in last week’s news revealed big changes on tap for our beloved Twitter…looks like pretty soon we’ll be able to send tweets containing more than the infamous 140-character limit. Can you imagine? According to reports, “The company is planning to extend its 140-character limit to as many as 10,000, according to a person familiar with the matter.” (via WSJ Blog)
Although on the one-hand that seems like a pretty incredible option, what about the excitement and quick read of Twitter’s current 140-character limit? Not to mention it takes some skill and pretty good creativity to learn how to deliver your message with such conciseness. “Twitter’s loud and devoted user base was quick to bemoan that such a change — expected to be announced by the end of March — would spoil the brevity and speed of the real-time service. The character limit that forces users to pen snappy tweets could give way to the longer essays found on Facebook, for example. It could transform Twitter into more of a public blogging platform rather than one that is succinct and well-suited to quips and breaking news headlines.”
Despite the fact that Twitter maintains it “is aiming to retain the look and feel of the user timeline,” this is a pretty big change that certainly will uproot the way we tweet. It opens a whole doorway to using Twitter in ways we never have before with the opportunity to have a platform for much deeper explanation. “For tweets that are longer than 140 characters, users will have to click and expand to see the rest of the text. As users write beyond the 140-character limit, Twitter will signal to them that they have crossed the threshold as a way to encourage brevity.” (via WSJ Blog)
Here’s what Twitter co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey had to say about the upcoming changes:
— Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
If you don’t remember, this past summer Twitter made changes to the private messaging feature, giving users the option to send private messages of up to 10,000 characters. Do you think this change is encouraging users to wish this was an active feature for regular public-facing tweets? Would you consider using Twitter to deliver messages up to 10,000 characters or would you stay true to the original 140-character limit?
