Starting Sept. 19, Twitter will introduce a new change that will effectively allow its users to tweet more characters, with room for more content without violating its 140-character rule.
In this new development, the popular micro-blogging site will supposedly discount usernames, media attachments and quoted tweets and contents. Previously, the URL's characters also used to count, prompting the use of shorteners. But all these demonstrate the evolution of the way each message is defined by the company through the years.
The news about the upcoming change, which was first reported by The Verge, is supported by an earlier official pronouncement from Twitter outlining the revamp. This includes a section that explained how media content such as photos, GIFs, videos and polls will no longer count as characters. The company claimed this is part of a wider shift toward empowering users to do more with each tweet.
Twitter's statement, which was posted in May, did not provide a specific schedule for the change. If the report of the September update is correct, then this means it took the company at least three months to ponder how the change will be implemented. This should highlight the delicacy by which the 140-character limit is being approached by the company.
Earlier this year, Twitter has floated the idea that it will be extending the character limit. Some rumors cite a potential increase to a humongous 10,000 characters per tweet. This attracted criticisms from Twitter users who believe that the brevity of the 140-character rule is a defining characteristic of the social media platform and has been effective in keeping the entire interface, particularly with how they look in personal Twitter timelines, quick and seamless in the context of conversation or live commentary.
It is important to remember that the effort to expand the content of each tweet is more than just a desire on the part of Twitter to allow users to be able to express more or encourage lurkers to be more active participants. The increased space allows the company to become a more effective platform for advertisements and paid contents. This is demonstrated in the recent tieup between Periscope, Twitter's live streaming service, and Amplify, an advertising outfit that matches brands with content. By tapping the latter's ad program, media content and live broadcasts will be a source of steady revenue.
Twitter is yet to confirm the news about the change to the character rule. So, this early, it is not yet clear whether it will be implemented in one rollout or whether it will be implemented at all.
Photo: Christopher Corneschi | Flickr
