Twitter Will Stick With 140-Character Tweet Limit, CEO Says

Twitter will be keeping its 140-character tweet limit, it has been announced. It's good news for users who have been worried over word that Twitter was considering increasing the character count, something that would fundamentally change how the service is used. The reassurance was given by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during a spat on the Today Show earlier. "It's staying," he said.

The beginning of this year, Twitter made it known it was considering increasing tweet character limits, with the team looking into something as absurdly high as 10,000 characters. Users panicked and complained and vowed to leave if such a change was made. As it is, Twitter's very short and easily-scanned messages are a big part of its appeal.

Still, those who have more to say than a couple sentences have to jump through some hoops, writing their longer messages elsewhere with a link to it, or screen-capping a text statement and sharing it within a tweet as an image. Twitter looked into making it possible for those users to post longer pieces of text, but in a way that wouldn't compromise the nature of the site.

Ultimately, though, all the worry was over nothing, and Twitter will be staying as it is, with Dorsey saying, "It's a good constraint for us and it allows for of-the-moment brevity." The higher character limit for direct messages remains, of course, meaning if you have something longer to say, a DM to someone is always an option.

SOURCE: Bloomberg