Skip to main content

Think 140 characters is too short? Twitter may finally agree with you

Twitter may eliminate its 140-character limit on direct messages
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Does Twitter’s 140 character limit leave you feeling trapped and longing for more? Are your thoughts and opinions too grand to be encapsulated by just a few short words? Is the word “loquacious” often used to describe you and your personality? If you answered yes to any or all of the above, boy, do I have good news for you. Twitter has plans to build a new product that will have none of this 140-character-limit business in a project it is creatively code naming “140 Plus.” No word yet on timing or what the product will ultimately look like, but as the social media giant faces waning user numbers, it’s becoming clear that something is going to have to change. And as it turns out, it may just be its signature take on brevity.

Twitter has made no official comment on the rumored new product, but numerous sources have reported that the news comes from “multiple people familiar with the company’s plans.” Though the limit has been a mainstay of Twitter’s functionality since the company first launched in 2006, times are clearly changing. Interim CEO Jack Dorsey, who first made a name for himself by co-founding the social media platform, has now come full circle and is back at Twitter’s helm, and may be looking to edit his original conception of the product.

Related: [Twitter handbook for politicians piece]

Re/code, which first broke the news, notes that debate regarding the now-standard limit has grown intense in the last few months, and one senior employee told the publication, “People have been very precious at Twitter about what Twitter can be and how much it can be evolved.” As the company looks for ways to boost its engagement numbers, especially in the wake of reports that platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are quickly growing in popularity (perhaps at Twitter’s expense), allowing users to post long-form tweets may be an interesting way to go about things.

Of course, nothing is set in stone yet, and the longer version of Twitter may never see the light of day. But at the very least, the announcement has sparked discussions that are much longer than 140 characters.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Thanks to Tapbots’ Ivory app, I’m finally ready to ditch Twitter for good
Profile displayed in Ivory app

Ever since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, it’s been one chaotic new thing after another. You literally cannot go a day (or a few days or even a week) without some stupid new change to the site — whether it’s about checkmarks for verified or Twitter Blue subscriber accounts, how links to other social networks are banned and then reversed, view counts on Tweets, or something else. I can’t keep up with every little thing that has happened since the beginning of November, and it feels like the spotlight is always on the toxicity of the site in general.

New Twitter alternatives have been popping up recently, but it seems that the most popular one continues to be Mastodon. I originally made a Mastodon account back in 2018 when it first launched, but it never clicked with me back then, and I eventually went back to Twitter. With the Musk mess, I tried going back to Mastodon, but again, it didn’t really click with me — until Tweetbot developer, Tapbots, revealed its next project: Ivory.
The significance of Tapbots and Tweetbot

Read more
Elon Musk says Twitter character limit will increase hugely
Twitter logo in white stacked on top of a blue stylized background with the Twitter logo repeating in shades of blue.

Elon Musk, the man who bought Twitter for $44 billion at the end of October, says the social media platform is planning to up the limit for tweets to 4,000 characters, a significant increase on the current 280-character limit.

Responding to an inquiry on Twitter from someone asking if it’s true "that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000," Musk replied, “Yes,” but declined to offer any additional information, such as when the change will take place. It's also unclear as to whether longer tweets will only be available to subscribers of Twitter Blue, Twitter's premium tier that's set to relaunch sign-ups on Monday.

Read more
Nvidia’s RTX 4080 12GB may soon return, but not how you think
The top of the Nvidia RTX 4080 cooler.

According to a new leak, Nvidia may soon launch another graphics card -- the RTX 4070 Ti. Set to arrive on January 5, the GPU should be well-positioned to rival AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT.

Even if the rumor proves to be true, we're still left with even more questions. Is this a new GPU or is Nvidia's canceled RTX 4080 12GB making a quiet comeback?

Read more