Twitter has just confirmed recent reports that it will axe photos from inclusion in its 140-character count; however, the social media site is also preparing a big bundle of other features that, it claims, should help users to get even more from their Tweets.
So, other media attachments – including videos, GIFs, polls and Quote Tweets – will also soon no longer be counted as characters within a Tweet. Furthermore, @names will cease to be so counted in replies to Tweets, while new Tweets starting with an @name will become visible in users’ feeds. This means that users can do away with the “.@name” convention for broadly sharing Tweets.
In the coming months, we're introducing new ways for you to express even more with a Tweet: https://t.co/l1sWRvXWqr pic.twitter.com/zzhWpRcABs
— Twitter (@Twitter) May 24, 2016
It will also be possible to draw more attention to your Tweets by using Retweet and Quote Tweet. Yes, that’s right – the Retweet button will be added to your own Tweets. This should prove ideal for when, for example, you want a really good past Tweet of yours to attract attention again.
Twitter says that these changes will become available “over the coming months”, citing a desire to notify both users and developers to ensure “that everything works as it should when we roll these changes out”. The company added that it is exploring ways of even further expanding Twitter’s ease-of-use and functionality without compromising the site’s “unique brevity and speed”.
