In what is expected to be a highly controversial reveal, Twitter has announced that they are doubling their character limit from the previous 140 to 280. At present, this is being tested on some users.
The company have said that they have come to this decision because of how character and word count vary depending on language. Product manager Aliza Rosen writes that languages such as Korean, Japanese, and Chinese can “convey about double the amount of information in one character” as other languages like English, French, and Spanish.
For example, 9% of tweets in English have 140 characters while only 0.4% of tweets in Japanese hit the character limit:
Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people Tweeting in English, but it is not for those Tweeting in Japanese. Also, in all markets, when people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting.
Some Twitter users may be put off by the double in tweet length but the company hopes that this will move the service forward for everyone:
We’re hoping fewer Tweets run into the character limit, which should make it easier for everyone to Tweet. Twitter is about brevity. It’s what makes it such a great way to see what’s happening. Tweets get right to the point with the information or thoughts that matter. That is something we will never change.
CEO Jack Dorsey even released a statement in a 280 character tweet of his own:
This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu
— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017
Only a small percentage of users will experience the new feature for now and the company is not promising that it is something that will stick around if it is met with bad reactions.
