Twitter is looking into expanding the length of tweets by a lot

By Fusion Staff  |  January 5, 2016 | 10:18pm
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Twitter, a social media service whose product is defined by its brevity, is considering ditching that brevity.

The company is “building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit,” according to Re/Code, who cite “multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans.” The report adds that the company hopes to launch the longer tweet feature sometime in the next few months.

There are already ways to get around the 140-character limit, like screenshots or the third-party app Twitlonger, but this plan suggests Twitter will soon embrace lengthier tweeting.

Twitter, which failed to add any new users in the U.S. for two quarters last year, might be trying a new strategy. The company has been experimenting with a number of changes recently, including non-chronological timelines and the widely-disparaged and then quickly ignored change of “Favorites” and stars to “Likes” and hearts, which was instituted in early November.

The change is already being pretty thoroughly drubbed on, hey, Twitter:

https://twitter.com/runofplay/status/684431964804235264

For my money, Buzzfeed‘s Charlie Warzel has the right idea:

They’ve left the door unlocked, let’s run!

Update: The Wall Street Journal‘s Digits blog confirmed Re/Code‘s report, though their source added that Twitter “is aiming to retain the look and feel of the user timeline” and indicated users would have to click to expand longer tweets.

Twitter founder and once-again CEO Jack Dorsey also commented on the news, tweeting a screenshot of a note that says the change will add more “utility and power” to the service. Here’s the entire note:

Allow me to repeat: they’ve left the door unlocked, let’s run!

Ethan Chiel is a reporter for Fusion, writing mostly about the internet and technology. You can (and should) email him at [email protected]

 
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