I’ll be honest. My first reaction to Twitter doubling its character count – from 140 to 280 – made me all:

via GIPHY

I’m not alone:

Twitter users herald new character limits with 280-character howls of despair 

I mean, for Pete’s sake, people have made an art and science out of the 140-character Tweet. Aren’t limits sometimes a good thing (think daily recommended sugar intake). Sometimes more isn’t better, it’s just too much!

And who’s asking for this? Doesn’t Twitter have bigger worries with rampant abuse, harassment and Russian bots?

Twitter says hold on a minute. They need to make their product easier to use. Character constraints impact users differently, depending on language. The 140-character limit was based on old text-messaging technology, before smartphones grew out of our palms.

For what it’s worth, Twitter claims that when it tested the larger limit, only 5% of Tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and only 2% were over 190 characters. So, theoretically, your reading experience shouldn’t change that much.

Accompanying the new higher limit is a new circle graphic that shows you, graphically, how much space you’re taking up as you type your tweet.

Twitter new limit

A few nonprofits have already embraced the new limit:

Ya’ll should have the new length by now. Have you tried it? What do you think?

Weigh in the comments. And show us your Tweets!

Published On: November 9, 2017|Categories: General|