Major Twitter Update Lets You Say More with 140 Characters

The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes

9/20/16 Note: This update is now in effect on Twitter.

Twitter has announced major updates to its service. Some changes will make it easier to get your point across in 140 characters. Other changes will affect how your tweets can be sent and who will see your Tweets.

Change in How Characters Are Counted

While rumors swirled that Twitter would raise its 140 character limit, the company didn’t increase the limit and decided to make a different change.

Twitter kept its 140 character limit in tact. Instead, the company is changing the way that characters are counted.

Twitter now excludes the following from its 140 character count:

• Web addresses/URLs
• Photos
• GIFs
• Polls
• Quote Tweets
• Twitter IDs in Replies

So when you use these in a tweet, they won’t be counted against your 140 character limit. This is great news for those of us who want to have more space to share our thoughts on Twitter.

Say more about what’s happening! Rolling out now: photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count toward your 140 characters. pic.twitter.com/I9pUC0NdZC

— Twitter (@twitter) September 19, 2016

Web Addresses/URLs

Web addresses (also known as URLs) will no longer be included in the character count which is a huge change, and not just because it gives us more words per tweet. Web addresses can take up a lot of characters so many sites (including The Wonder of Tech) use a shortened link in tweets to use Twitter characters sparingly.

For example, both of these URLs open the article How to Protect Your Laptop from Damage and Disaster [Infographic] at The Wonder of Tech:

Full web address: https://wonderoftech.com/laptop-protect/

Shortened link: http://wp.me/p1kzFb-5ZA

But not all shortened links lead you to legitimate websites. Shortened links can cause big problems because you can’t see the full web address you’re headed to when you click the shortened link.

You may think you’re clicking on a link to take you to a trustworthy website, but the shortened link masks the actual destination.

When you click on a shortened link you could be opening any website, including a site with malware and viruses. By the time you click, it may be too late if the malicious site slips through your antivirus protection software.

By not counting URLs as characters, Twitter will be giving people the freedom to use the full web address instead of a shortened link, without using up any of the 140 characters. Because URLs won’t count as characters, there will be no need to use a shortened link.

This change will make clicking a link in a tweet less risky.

Polls, GIFs, Photos and Quote Tweets

If you’ve ever crafted the perfect tweet, then added a photo and exceeded the 140 character limit, you probably felt more than a wee bit of frustration.

Now when you craft a tweet you can take it to the max, filling up your 140 characters, without worrying about adding an image. Add a photo or GIF and it won’t count against the character limit.

Thanks for a great chat #edbeat See you in the fall! pic.twitter.com/6DqDOBna9I

— Janine Caffrey (@JanineCaffrey) June 2, 2016

Twitter Polls

If you want to conduct a Twitter Poll, you can do that and it won’t count against your character limit. See, New Twitter Polls — What You Need to Know!

Quote Tweets

Similarly, you can quote a tweet and not have the quoted tweet count against your character limit. Don’t miss, Twitter’s New Feature That Helps You Be More Social!

Twitter IDs in Replies

Twitter IDs in replies will no longer count against the 140 character limit. Let’s say a conversation starts on Twitter. You’re replying to a tweet that’s already a reply to someone else. And then someone else replies to that tweet.

@Aricfoster2 @Jeff_Zoul @devaron3 @kenmattingly Thanks Aric :0 #edbeat #humbled

— Starr Sackstein (@mssackstein) June 2, 2016

You can see how the reply tweets could be filled with @name1 @name2 @name3 @name4, etc. Suddenly, you have barely any characters left to share your thoughts. Twitter IDs in replies will no longer count against your 140 limit.

[note] Note that a Twitter ID will still count against your 140 character limit in tweets that aren’t replies. [/note]

Other Changes to Twitter

Twitter announced more changes last week that will affect the way you tweet.

Retweet and Quote Tweet Yourself

Previously, Twitter prohibited you from tweeting the same tweet within a few days. With the changes, Twitter will let you retweet yourself and quote your own tweets. If you’d like to say the same thing again, or add a thought to your tweet, you’ll be able to do that with these changes.

No More Targeted Tweets

Previously, you could target a tweet to a person by starting the tweet with their Twitter ID. Tweets that start with @name were only seen by that person and accounts that follow both the sender and the person who was mentioned.

Many people got around that restriction by starting a tweet with a period before the Twitter name. So a tweet would begin with .@name instead of @name so more people would see the tweet.

.@smgaillard You are a great leader. So appreciated by so many. #EdBeat

— Rita Wirtz (@RitaWirtz) June 2, 2016

Twitter is changing its rules so that tweets that begin with @name will go to all of your followers, not just the followers you have in common with @name.

Availability

This update to Twitter went into effect September 19. 2016.

Twitter is rolling out these changes slowly, over the coming months. If you see a photo using up characters in your tweet, then the changes for your account aren’t effective yet.

The company wanted to notify developers far in advance to make sure they had time to update their apps, software, websites, etc. to take advantage of these changes.

Your Thoughts

Are you excited about these changes to Twitter? Have you ever been frustrated at images and web addresses taking up characters in your tweets? Which changes do you like best?

Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

* Twitter bird image (edited) courtesy of Richard Goodwin via Flickr and Creative Commons

Voice of America Learning English

Want to learn about tech while you’re learning English? Check out my weekly tech column at Voice of America Learning English. This week’s article is: Travel Apps Offer Direction, Fun.