Kurt Wagner over a Re/code, citing people close to the firm, wrote on Tuesday that Twitter is building a product that will allow uses to express themselves in more than 140 characters.
Advertisement
The new product, first reported on technology website Re/code, follows a recent deceleration in user growth for the site. Co-founder Jack Dorsey, who is serving as interim CEO as the company undergoes an internal and external search, has reportedly endorsed the update.
Since Twitter’s inception, tweets have been 140 characters long.
And if it does extend the limit, the question would then be by how much?
Online magazine Slate’s senior technology writer Will Oremus has speculated it would be a feature that would allow users to publish notes directly to Twitter rather than linking to them. A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the rumours at all.
Now, with shareholder and investor pressure to grow its user base, making one of its limits, well, less of a limit could make Twitter more attractive. Having Jack come in and say its okay makes all the difference in the world.
Twitter, which is definitely bigger than Facebook, is exploring the possibility of removing its most unique feature: the 140-character limit.
There is a few merit in excluding usernames and links in the character count as it’s not a radical change, but Twitter should tread lightly with anything larger than that. While the limit is also the trademark of the company, many users have been asking for the restriction to be abolished.
Advertisement
In May of a year ago Twitter allowed users to start tagging up to 10 other users in photos, a feat that would be impossible with traditional @mention tagging people.
