Twitter will soon extend its 140- character limit

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May 26, 2016
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2 min read

The greatest frustration of every Twitter user is being forced to cram their thoughts into the 140 characters that constitute the average tweet. This frustration is even worse when you have to add media files i.e GIFs, pictures, and videos to the tweet, as they take up space thereby reducing an already insufficient number of words. In this case, the minimalist nature of a tweet seems like a curse.

In a recent development, Twitter is seeking to put an end to our 140 character dilemma through updates that will be made available over the coming months.

According to an official blog post, when these updates are made available, media attachments and "@name" in tweets will no longer count as characters, so you can attach whatever media file you desire, "@" any number of people and still achieve a full 140 character tweet.

Previously, when you start a tweet with an "@name", it addresses and restricts the tweet to the user mentioned, but with the new upcoming updates, tweets starting with "@name" will now be made generic.

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These changes are very good and will be especially beneficial to advertisers who are the ones usually inhibited by the 140 character chain.

Recently, Instagram upgraded to 60 seconds videos from the normal 30 seconds, these changes that are seeing social media platforms tending towards business is slowly changing the way they are going to be used in the nearest future.

On the hand, Twitter recently signed a contract with the National Football League(NFL) in the United States of America that gives them live streaming rights to Thursday Night Football on the platform. I suspect some of these upcoming changes in the coming months are meant to accommodate new and existing users on the platform and handle the surge of new users that Thursday Night Football will bring unto the platform.

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Whether it is or not, this is a very welcome development,keeping fingers crossed and patiently looking forward to the coming months when these updates would be rolled out.

tech. media. startups. africa. vc | Twitter: @victor_ekwealor
tech. media. startups. africa. vc | Twitter: @victor_ekwealor
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tech. media. startups. africa. vc | Twitter: @victor_ekwealor

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