Twitter Testing Doubling Its 140 Character Limit

Twitter has had a 140-character limit since its founding 11 years ago, but it’s now testing a doubling of that to 280 characters. The company is making the longer allowable length available for some users.

Twitter already eased the restrictions last year, when they stopped counting things like photos, videos and polls towards the character limit. In making the announcement yesterday (September 26th), Twitter said it knew that some users might have what it called an “emotional attachment” toward the 140-character limit, but said that even at 280 characters, tweets are still brief.

The 140-character limit was originally imposed so that tweets would fit in a single text message, which was how people used Twitter then, but since most people now use it through its mobile app, the technical necessity isn’t there anymore.

Can’t fit your Tweet into 140 characters?

We’re trying something new with a small group, and increasing the character limit to 280! Excited about the possibilities? Read our blog to find out how it all adds up. https://t.co/C6hjsB9nbL

— Twitter (@Twitter) September 26, 2017