Twitter Rolls Out 280 Character Limit Worldwide Following Successful Test Period
You may remember that back in September we reported on how Twitter were trialling an increased character limit of 280 characters on a few select accounts, and I think it’s safe to
say the decision invited some criticism. Users expressed frustration with the
platform, saying the change would simply serve to make Twitter more like
Facebook and sacrifice the concise, micro-blogging nature of the site which has
long been cited as a major appeal of the platform.
Well cue the angry tweets because regardless of the apparent
opposition to the change, Twitter announced in a blog post on Tuesday 7th November that they’re going ahead
and rolling out the new 280-character limit to all users anyway. While this
announcement is sure to annoy some users, Twitter insist that the increased
character limit while make it easier to tweet while keeping the platform’s
brevity intact.
The answer given to those still concerned regarding the
change is that while Twitter’s data from the trial suggests that when needed
the increased character limit allowed people to express themselves more freely,
cutting down the time spent composing tweets while reducing the proportion of
tweets written in English which hit the character limit from 9% to 1%, the number
of tweets which in fact exceeded the past limit of 140 characters was
surprisingly low.
 |
| Img: Twitter |
In fact despite a seemingly-widespread concern that longer
tweets would clog up timelines following the increase, Twitter report that only
5% of tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and just 2% were over 190
characters, occupying less space than the average image or poll.
The increase also made an impact in terms of engagement,
with Twitter insisting that once given more space in which to tweet, users
experienced heightened numbers of likes, retweets and mentions, got more
followers, and spent more time on Twitter overall.
The change will be rolled out immediately and will affect
all languages for which ‘cramming’ is considered to be an issue. Japanese,
Korean, and Chinese will not be included and will retain the past limit of 140
characters; according to Twitter this is because “cramming is not an issue in
these languages. In fact, these languages have always been able to say more
with their Tweets because of the density of their writing systems.”
Sam
is an aspiring novelist with a passion for fantasy and crime thrillers.
Currently working as Editor of Social Songbird, he hopes to one day drop that
'aspiring' prefix. Follow him @Songbird_Sam
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Twitter Rolls Out 280 Character Limit Worldwide Following Successful Test Period
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Thursday, November 09, 2017
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Thursday, November 09, 2017
Rating:
Unknown
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