Users who have mastered Twitter know how to say a lot in just 140 characters. Yes, they have practiced endlessly and have almost turned tweet-writing into a science. Despite that, they still face many annoyances, and it’s not always that easy to say things the way they want to say things. But Twitter has evolved in ten years, and it’s given users more ways to express themselves. Now, Twitter is about to make some huge changes that will allow users to better use their character-limit.
Since it’s launch just over a decade ago Twitter has “evolved from a simple 140-character text message to a rich canvas for creative expression”. Photos, videos, hashtags, Vines, GIFs, Polls, Periscome broadcasts in Tweets… these features are now very much big parts of the platform. But Twitter wants you to be able to more. So, in Sr. Product Manager at Twitter, Todd Sherman‘s, own words:
[quote]In the coming months we’ll make changes to simplify Tweets including what counts toward your 140 characters, so for instance, @names in replies and media attachments (like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) will no longer “use up” valuable characters.[/quote]
So, forget what you once knew… But, how are things changing exactly?
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- Replies: When a user replies to a Tweet, @names will no longer count toward the 140-character count. This is great news because conversations on the platform will become a lot more straightforward! Reaching a big group of users becomes a lot easier!
- Media attachments: As we mentioned in a recent post, Twitter was thinking about doing away with the characters used up when uploading an image. Now, when adding attachments – photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or Quote Tweets – they won’t count as characters anymore. This is bound to make Twitter much more “visual” and “interactive”, as users are actually encouraged to use media in their Tweets. Also, there is “more room for words”!
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Retweet and Quote Tweet yourself: The Retweet button will be enabled on a user’s own Tweets soon, so anyone can Retweet or Quote Tweet him/herself. Users can now add something more or just simply repurpose the same post.
The “.@” is going: Tweets that begins with a username will reach all followers soon without having to use .@ before a name. For replies to be seen by all, users can simply Retweet. Over the years, Twitter has been criticised for being a bit too technical for all users. This change really starts to simplify things for new users.
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Twitter says the updates “will be available over the coming months”, but the company wants to do it all the right way – especially since there are so many other products using Twitter’s API – so, it’s letting us all know about it now. But that’s not all… As Twitter explains in the blog announcement,
[quote]In addition to the changes outlined above, we have plans to help you get even more from your Tweets. We’re exploring ways to make existing uses easier and enable new ones, all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections, and conversations.[/quote]
Eh… whatever that means. For one, we know that “brevity” remains at the very heart of the platform. The rest is a bit of a surprise really. I can’t wait!
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