Twitter no longer 140 characters

Twitter Finally Relaxes 140 Character Limit

Twitter Finally Relaxes 140 Character Limit 700 411 Gravitate Digital

It’s big news from Twitter this week as the online social network finally relax their 140 character limit.

From now on, symbols or emojis within a tweet will not count as text, allowing more room for simple written content. Images, video files, GIFs, quotes and polls will also no longer affect the 140 character count, though embedded images hosted through external sites and links will continue to take up space.

Why has it taken so long for Twitter to relax their character limit?

For those of us that feel the frustration of having to write and re-write tweets in order to ensure they fit the current strict character limit, this change couldn’t have come soon enough, though it does make you question why Twitter didn’t implement this change at an earlier stage in the site’s development – and why they continue to limit text so severely.

Some might argue that tiny character counts are the foundation on which the twitter-sphere was built, giving the site its unique identity, while others will recognise the necessity for change in order to reflect the increasingly diverse media formats used within tweets.

Can we expect further changes from Twitter in the near future?

These changes form part of a series of new design efforts being rolled out with the intention of making Twitter more user-friendly.

According to tech news site The Verge, more changes are on the horizon with Twitter already testing out a new replies system which will cut usernames from character limits. However, if users reply to multiple friends simultaneously, only the name of the person who sent the original tweet will be omitted from the character count.

Announced back in May, the new character boundaries were rolled out on Monday evening –  so keep your eyes peeled.