Images, Links, @Names Will No Longer Take Up the 140 Twitter Character Limit
May 25, 2016
Get ready to tweet your heart out.
The 140 Twitter character limit you know and love will soon exclude media attachments like images, videos, polls, and GIFs, as well as names that start with @.
Currently, adding an attachment like a photo or link takes up 23 characters, giving you a total of 117 characters to work with. But with the new change, you’ll get all 140 to compose your messages.
Unlike other Twitter features no one was asking for, excluding media and names from the 140 Twitter character limit seems useful. Like, really useful.
Since its inception, Twitter has been teaching you to use your words wisely. You’ve had to think hard on just the right words to use—and not just words, but characters. Once this change goes through, you’ll finally have the space to say everything that’s on your mind. Well, maybe not everything. But a good deal more than before.
Want to know what SEO Inc. can help you do with the added space to your Twitter character limit? Read on!
Why the Twitter Character Limit is Changing
In its announcement, Twitter wants users to “express even more.” They acknowledge how the platform is used for photos, videos, polls, hashtags, and even Vines. Basically, it’s become an ideal place for starting and continuing conversations. With the decision to free up its character count, Twitter wants users to have more freedom to say what they want, rather than being tied up by every letter and symbol.
When You Can Expect to “Express More” on Twitter
Here are all the upcoming changes:
@names – When replying to a tweet, names will no longer expend your total Twitter character count. This lets you have more meaningful conversations, especially when you’re talking to more than one person. No more having to include everyone in on the conversation and having only enough space for simple “yes” or “no” responses.
Images, Videos, and more – Media attachments like images and videos make for some of the most engaging content on Twitter. Now, they’ll create even more engagement, as they won’t affect the character count. This goes for images, videos, polls, GIFs, retweets, and quoted tweets.
Retweets and Quotes – Twitter will soon let you retweet and quote tweets without taking up precious characters. In addition, you will also be able to retweet yourself more easily with a new Retweet button. So if a tweet you felt deserved more attention than it got, you’ll be able to try again.
No more “.@” – Twitter wants to do away with the “.@ convention,” which is currently the only way to write a tweet that both begins with a username and is sent to all your followers, not just the one. Twitter will make it so you don’t have to use that weird-yet-functional workaround. Your tweet will look smoother and more natural, and it won’t even count against your Twitter character count!
All these changes are expected to roll out in the coming months. Twitter says more new changes will be on their way, but we’ll get to those when the time comes.
In the meantime, be sure to follow SEO Inc. on Twitter to learn of the latest news in social media and search engine optimization.
Check out our Social Media Image Dimensions and Size Guide to learn how to post the optimal images on your tweets.
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