Twitter rolls out 280-character Tweets to all users
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After testing 280-character posts for a select number of users since September, Twitter has decided to enable the character limit for all its users.
For 11 years, the 140-character post has been the platform’s defining factor.
Twitter believes that it’s unlocked some sort of Tweet sweet-spot, mentioning the concern that – at least in English – 9% of all Tweets hit the previous limit, but now only 1% hint the 280-character limit.
Those test subjects taking advantage of their longer posts report receiving more engagement – retweets, likes and mentions – and got more followers, a Twitter blog post reveals.
“During the first few days of the test, many people Tweeted the full 280 limit because it was new and novel,” says Aliza Rosen, product manager at Twitter, “but soon after, behaviour normalised.
“We saw when people needed to use more than 140 characters, they Tweeted more easily and more often. But importantly, people Tweeted below 140 most of the time and the brevity of Twitter remained,” she says.
Japanese, Korean and Chinese languages will continue with the 140-character limit because “cramming is not an issue,” says the blog.
“These languages have always been able to say more with their Tweets because of the density of their writing systems.”