Twitter Considers Expanding 140-Character Limit to 10,000 Characters

Twitter is considering removing the 140-character limit allowing a new 10,000-character limit tweet, according to multiple reports.

The surprising news came Tuesday morning following several speculations. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and chief executive, dropped the strongest hint yet by sharing a screenshot of text explaining some of his reasoning behind the move.

Dorsey’s screenshot came after reports leaked from technology site Recode that “longer tweets are coming soon to Twitter.” The 10,000-character limit is the same limit Twitter uses for its Direct Messages services. According to the reports, the launch of the longer tweets could arrive sometime toward the end of Q1.

“We’ve spent a lot of time observing what people are doing on Twitter, and we see them taking screenshots of text and tweeting it. Instead, what if that text … was actually text? Text that could be searched. Text that could be highlighted. That’s more utility and power,” shared Dorsey.

Twitter users were fast to express their concerns and criticism about the changes. Some users warned that they would leave Twitter sharing “that the spirit of Twitter would be corrupted by users having the ability to post screeds of text,” reported The Guardian.

https://twitter.com/HecklerForever/status/684724202046242818

I dont even have the patience to read long posts on Facebook. Now you give me 10k on Twitter. No to #Twitter10k

— Kathy (@kathy1218) January 6, 2016

Dorsey has been trying to jumpstart the amount of users on Twitter, which seems to be a likely motive behind the change in character limit. None of the recent updates, including the Moments button, have really made an impact.

Twitter has not made much of a profit since launching in 2006. What Twitter would be hoping to do with the 10,000-character limit is increase the amount of users on the social platform, therefore increasing the revenue in the eyes of its shareholders.

While the public is still unsure about the #Twitter10K, they all have the same request for one new feature. How about an edit button, Dorsey?

https://twitter.com/GS19_87/status/684760538732179456