In a series of tweets Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey called the 140-character limit “a handsome constraint”.
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Dorsey went on to explain that Twitter has seen people taking screenshots of text larger than 140 characters and then tweeting the image to distribute a longer message – exactly what Dorsey did, perhaps to illustrate a point.
The tech website “Re/code” reports that a new feature – possibly due around March – would allow Twitterers to use up to 10 thousand characters.
Twitter previously expanded the character length of Direct Messages from 140 to 10,000.
As far back as I can remember, Twitter users have been talking up the idea that an extension of the 140-character limit wouldn’t be a bad thing.
In recent times the social networking site has recently been struggling with low share prices and competition with Facebook, which has more than 1.4 billion active users compared with Twitter’s 300 million.
A new feature allowing users to send out longer tweets will be welcomed and Twitter is doing exactly that. Making tweets longer by adding more content and bigger pictures had diminished user engagement in the past, according to sources close to the company.
According to commentators, it seemed Twitter was also effectively expanding its role as a publisher, by hosting more content on its own service, which was in keeping with the trend seen in the a year ago from Facebook, Snapchat, Apple and Google. The platform is expected to display only the first 140 characters of the new feature-length posts, asking users to click to continue reading.
Dorsey said the company will not be “shy” about changes.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes an increased limit on tweets would be a “good, baby step” to attracting more users to Twitter and believes it could be done without alienating the service’s current audience.
Still, the rule has set Twitter apart from other social-media sites, prompting its users to be concise and creative with their thoughts.
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In this photo illustration, the Twitter logo and hashtag ‘#Ring!’ is displayed on a mobile device as the company announced its initial public offering and debut on the New York Stock Exchange on November 7, 2013 in London, England.
