Twitter is testing a 280-character limit in tweets with a small group.
The micro-blogging site is breaking its long-standing 140-character limit on tweets.
Twitter latest move seeks to address what it describes as “a major cause of frustration” for some users. Whilst the 140-character limit is not a problem for everyone, like users who tweet in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, it appears to be a problem for users who tweet in English and other languages.
Diving into their data, Twitter found out that about 9% of English tweets had 140 characters compared to 0.4% for Japanese tweets. For this reason, the company wants to create a level playing field for everyone.
“We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters,”
Aliza Rosen, product manager at Twitter wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Twitter believes that the lengthening of tweets will eliminate the problem of having to cram your thoughts into a tweet. The social media giant also believes this will lead to an increase in tweets, engagement and overall time users spend on their platform.
Considering Twitter has been struggling with growth for some time now, we strongly believe that this is part of the measures to grow their user base.
Reaction from Users
Obviously, as CEO of the company, Jack Dorsey approves of this feature.
However, a lot of people don’t seem to like this new increase in character limit.
In response to Jack’s tweet, Sarah Kendzior a writer disapproved of the new update. She think 280 characters it too long.
Comedian Kumail Nanjiani of “Silicon Valley” fame also joined the critiques by tweeting “It’s remarkable how little Twitter understands its own appeal.”
https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/912797683772882944
He further went to on to reiterate that this new change will be the end of the social media giant.
https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/912929993973485568
Another Twitter user Karma Lodro also echoed the needlessness for the change.
https://twitter.com/BitcoinBuddhist/status/912934937166209024
Even though a lot of people seem to disapprove of the update, the “Queen of Muslim Twitter”, Hend Amry thinks they’re just butthurt because they weren’t chosen for the test.
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