What you need to know
- Twitter has announced its second character limit increase.
- Twitter Blue users are now able to post Tweets with up to 4,000 characters.
- The Tweets will be limited to 280 characters in the timeline, with a “See more” button to expand it.
It’s no secret that Elon Musk had been planning to increase the character limit of Tweets. On Wednesday, the company revealed that it has implemented its second increase, allowing users to post Tweets with up to 4,000 characters.
While the change sounds visually overwhelming, the company assures in a rather long Tweet that it won’t swamp your timeline with lengthy posts. “We know longer Tweets could mean a lot of scrolling, so they’ll be capped at 280 characters on your timeline and you’ll see a “Show more” prompt to click and read the whole Tweet.”
need more than 280 characters to express yourself?we know that lots of you do… and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that. so we’re introducing longer Tweets! you’re gonna want to check this out. tap this 👉… https://t.co/lge9udRzLEFebruary 8, 2023
The new feature is now available for Twitter Blue subscribers in the United States, although anyone would be able to view and read these longer Tweets if they so choose. That includes replying, quoting, and retweeting.
This is notably the second increase to the Tweet character limit since 2017 when it was increased from 140 to the current standard of 280. However, there are a few limitations to this expanded character limit for some users. When Tweeting from the web, you won’t be able to draft or schedule Tweets longer than 280 characters.
The new limit is just the latest example of drastic changes made to the platform since Elon Musk took over. The most controversial changes were made to the new Twitter Blue subscription, which now costs more and gives users Blue checkmarks. Making the new character limit exclusive to Twitter Blue is likely a way to tempt more users to subscribe.
Twitter took advantage of the new limit by posting a Tweet with “more words” typed over and over again. In response, other accounts responded with similar Tweets, such as the official accounts for Jurassic Park, Minions, Pizza Hut, and more.
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Following the launch of the new feature, Twitter is going through something of an outage. At the time of writing, many users are met with erroneous notices informing them that they’re “over the daily limit for sending Tweets.” It’s unclear if the two events are related.
