Rumors are flying that Twitter is considering scrapping the iconic 140-character limit on tweets—possibly expanding it well into the thousands. A Re/Code story quoting anonymous sources suggests Twitter could raise the limit as high as 10,000. The problem Twitter faces is that it risks surrendering the unique thing that makes it Twitter. Without that differentiation it may be overshadowed by other social network platforms that do the same thing better.
10,000 characters is a lot. Here is some perspective for you. I just finished writing an article that was 602 words. It is nine paragraphs long and occupies about a page-and-a-half of a standard Microsoft Word page. It is only 3,796 characters long—including the spaces. A 10,000-character max would essentially mean that a “tweet” could amount to a 3-page, 1,500-word novel.
To be fair—Twitter isn’t necessarily planning to fill your Twitter feed with 10,000-character posts. According to Re/Code:
Twitter is currently testing a version of the product in which tweets appear the same way they do now, displaying just 140 characters, with some kind of call to action that there is more content you can’t see. Clicking on the tweets would then expand them to reveal more content. The point of this is to keep the same look and feel for your timeline, although this design is not necessarily final, sources say.
OK. That at least would be something. I love Twitter, but I have to admit that 140 characters does sometimes feel a bit too restrictive. It has certainly led to many creative abbreviations and grammar structures to try and distill a complete thought down to its 140 most essential characters.
OK. That at least would be something. I love Twitter, but I have to admit that 140 characters does sometimes feel a bit too restrictive. It has certainly led to many creative abbreviations and grammar structures to try and distill a complete thought down to its 140 most essential characters.
But that is what made Twitter unique. Stupid move.
Something from 160 to 200 would be just fine.
I thought maybe 200 or something but I'm not here for my timeline being spammed.