Character Limit | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Wed, 06 Jan 2016 12:25:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Character Limit | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 Twitter may be culling the 140 character limit https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/twitter-may-be-culling-the-140-character-limit/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/twitter-may-be-culling-the-140-character-limit/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2016 10:45:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=279847 Twitter may be set to bring an end to its most iconic feature: the ability to type no more than 140 characters in a tweet. The number is synonymous with the service, but according to various sources that are said to be “familiar with the company's plans,” the prevailing winds within Twitter HQ could see …

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Twitter may be set to bring an end to its most iconic feature: the ability to type no more than 140 characters in a tweet. The number is synonymous with the service, but according to various sources that are said to be “familiar with the company's plans,” the prevailing winds within Twitter HQ could see the length of tweets extended to 10,000 characters.

That is of course the current limit for Twitter direct messages, so there is some precedent for changing things up to that limit instead (as per Recode), but it would change the entire social messaging platform forever. With brevity comes a very unique type of network, something that isn't replicated in the likes of Facebook or Google+, so without that, what's separating Twitter from the pack?

According to the unnamed sources, it will be in its presentation. Although 10,000 characters could be allowed, only 140 will display in people's feeds, as they do now. If users wish to use extra they can, but readers will need to click through to read what they say.

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As has been pointed out by others, keeping the design similar will be key to any character limit changes. In the past Twitter has looked to expand tweets automatically with images and longer messages or additional info, and it has almost always seen negative reactions from the community.

As Ars points out, the problem with a system that extends tweets is that it's an attempt to make Twitter palatable to those that don't use it currently. Executives want to grow the service, which is understandable, but there's a reason Twitter isn't Facebook: it's designed for a group of people that like the brevity, the immediacy and the relative distance between them and followers, as compared to “friends.”

Killing off a major feature could well see those hardcore users move on to something else, or at least reduce their engagement with it.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Are you much of a Twitter user? If so, what would you think if the character limit was suddenly expanded?

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Twitter has dropped the DM character limit https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/twitter-has-dropped-the-dm-character-limit/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/twitter-has-dropped-the-dm-character-limit/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2015 08:05:00 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=263343 140 characters is all you get with Twitter, which is why some resort to third party services if they want to communicate something longer form on the platform. However now at least users can send longer messages to those that follow them back, since direct messages have had their restrictions removed.  The idea is to …

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140 characters is all you get with Twitter, which is why some resort to third party services if they want to communicate something longer form on the platform. However now at least users can send longer messages to those that follow them back, since direct messages have had their restrictions removed.  The idea is to make Twitter more competitive with other messaging platforms, including some of the young upstarts which threaten Twitter's traditional user base.

With no restrictions on characters on services like Snapchat, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp or any of the other number of apps and sites that people can use to communicate, Twitter's Direct Message service always felt rather restricted. Since you were likely having a conversation through it rather than tweeting publicly, it simply forced users to use multiple messages. Not particularly convenient.

Now though the character limit has been essentially removed – technically each DM is ‘restricted' to 10,000 characters. Twitter hopes that this will stop its users going elsewhere when they want to have longer form conversations.

twitter

However Twitter is aware that it isn't going to be able to compete head on with some of the more convenient messaging services available today. What it hopes it can do at least with the expansion of DMs, is to make it so people discuss Twitter and Tweets on Twitter, rather than going elsewhere.

“It’s a really huge opportunity for us, to let people talk about Twitter content. We want to give people the channel to talk about that privately with their friends and family,” said Sachin Agarwal, Twitter's DM product manager (via the Telegraph).

This will also aid Twitter's front-facing customer service accounts, as many companies operate. Describing and answering problems through DM should be much easier with more characters to work with.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Restricting DMs always seemed like a dumb plan, so it's good Twitter has moved on from that. Do you think it will help it compete with other messenger services though?

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