Sources are buzzing that the social media site is planning on doing away with its heavily debated 140 character limit on Tweets. The rumor is allowing up to 10,000 characters – a big change for the company who’s looking to expand its user base. The character limit benefits Twitter by keeping all communications short so that the flow of information is fast and succinct. Yet, it limits those that wish to share more.
A lot of the Twitter network is concerned that such a change will ruin the concise nature of Twitter. However Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, promises that the site will “never lose that feeling”. The decision was partly due to the trend of posting screenshots of larger bits of copy as a workaround for the character limit. However, because it’s a screenshot of text, it cannot be copied, searched, or shared as copy. Dorsey feels there is a lot of utility to gain here.
Multibrain Analysis
Even with all of the opposition, there are many supporters of this change. Opening up Twitter to more characters will give businesses more opportunities to market and promote using Twitter. The extended character limit allows businesses to provide more brand information through their promotional copy. Links to websites can also be included without reducing the characters to fit. With 10,000 characters, we can expect Twitter to resemble more of a blog. However, this is unknown until the new designs are released.
Stay tuned for more updates on this topic as Twitter releases more information to the public.
Sources:
http://recode.net/2015/09/29/twitter-plans-to-go-beyond-its-140-character-limit/
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/01/05/twitter-to-expand-tweets-140-character-limit-to-10000/