Twitter to Test Doubling Tweet Length to 280 Characters

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter’s defining attribute has long been its brevity: 140 characters in a post and no more.

That is now set to change. Twitter said on Tuesday that it would test extending the text limit of a post on its service to 280 characters. (In effect, that would double the length of the first two sentences of this paragraph; those sentences, for the record, add up to 140 characters.)

Twitter said the goal was to eliminate what it viewed as constraints that kept people from tweeting more frequently. One significant barrier, according to Twitter’s internal research, has been the stringent limit on character count.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting,” Twitter said in a blog posts.

It is a significant moment for the 11-year-old Twitter, which has been trying to figure out how to change the social media service without alienating the people who have embraced its short format.

The idea of extending the length of Twitter posts has been contentious internally, batted around among product groups that are trying to find ways to persuade people to use the service more frequently. At 328 million users, Twitter has been criticized for its inability to attract more people. Investors have grown nervous, as that slowing of user growth has affected the company’s revenue.

Twitter is now preparing for a backlash from those who might take issue with a 280-character tweet.

“We understand since many of you have been tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters,” the company said. “But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint.”

Twitter said the people who will get to test the 280-character tweets will be randomly selected. Whether that may include prominent Twitter users like President Trump is unclear.

Mr. Trump has often used Twitter to announce policy decisions, which has sometimes led to heat on the service. This week, there was a renewed call to bar Mr. Trump from using Twitter after Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, said recent inflammatory tweets from Mr. Trump should be considered “a declaration of war.” On Monday, Twitter issued a statement from its policy team saying that it took a number of factors into account when dealing with violations of the company’s user agreement, including the “newsworthiness” of the tweet.

In the end, “Tweets get right to the point with the information or thoughts that matter,” the company said of the 280-character tweet test. “That is something we will never change.”

Follow,Resteem and UP VOTE
All cryptocurrency news and technology tips....!!