If you haven’t already heard, Twitter is working on a revised platform that will extend their 140-word character limit to as many as 10,000 characters by the end of Q1.
According to this recent post by Re/code, Twitter is currently testing a version of the product which features lengthier tweets, focusing on perfecting a design that will hopefully help, not hinder user growth and engagement. Other changes in consideration include changing the reverse chronological timeline of posts.
For me, the brevity of the content shared through Twitter is the main attractor to the popular social media platform. I can ingest and share content quickly – both personally and professionally. I turn to Twitter as my main news source, and find it to be an effective communications tool for my clients. I think an expanded character limit would result in lower engagement (more to consume = more content filtering), and lower tweet views by an account’s followers. I anticipate a great deal of backlash from both casual and business users similar to the complaints stemming from Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms. Will we soon be required to pay for our tweets to be seen by our followers?
If the word limit were lengthened, what would differentiate Twitter from other content-sharing platforms such as Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts and blog posts?
I think Twitter runs the risk of bruising their brand by changing the feature that users love most about their product. I can understand a desire to expand and enhance product features, but Twitter: I beg you to reconsider.
What are your thoughts on increasing Twitter character limits?
Leave a Reply