Twitter will soon expand a tweet’s 140 characters limit to 10,000, according to sources.
Apparently, the Twitter timeline should not be impacted because only the first 140 characters in the news feed will be shown and the 9,860 other hidden.
The announcement prompted a wave of reactions on the social platform.
Twitter May Increase Tweets To 10,000 Characters, But Hide All Past 140 https://t.co/lmVvgpL82c by @joshconstine pic.twitter.com/3BxJvJTHRg
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) January 5, 2016
Many imagined the worst…
10,000 characters, like in Direct Messages, that looks crazy and so long. Twitter users can’t imagine how this would look in the platform – a catastrophe?
https://twitter.com/edbott/status/684605405507403777
#Twitter10k
Reading 10k character #Twitter timeline. pic.twitter.com/tMvQvyPMny— Carlos E Mendez ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾 (@xCarlosEMendez) January 6, 2016
Here is a preview of how your timeline will appear after #Twitter10k is implemented. pic.twitter.com/SSK46Bv9Q6
— Lego Loki (@Loki_Lego) January 6, 2016
Twitter's response to 10,000-character tweets sums up what we're all thinking #Twitter10k https://t.co/gwJ4uFnUwB pic.twitter.com/0gBV407azD
— HuffPost UK Shopping (@HPShopping) January 6, 2016
There were the jokes…
https://twitter.com/KevinFarzad/status/684622573867409408
If Twitter moves to 10,000 characters, email must move to 140 characters.
It's only fair.
— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) January 5, 2016
The day Twitter allows 10,000 characters will be the day I think of a great joke that's 10,001 characters long.
— Michael Spicer (@MrMichaelSpicer) January 6, 2016
What's worse?
1. North Korea just tested a hydrogen bomb.
2. Twitter will allow 10,000 character tweets.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) January 6, 2016
The thought of reading 10,000 character long tweets…
Like if you think #Twitter10k is a bad idea. pic.twitter.com/xOuoJlEjPV
— Jacamo (@Jacamo) January 6, 2016
It’s not all bad though
This change could also help some Community Managers like the one at Atlanta Hawks. Yesterday night during a game, the Hawk’s Community Manager, posted a series of screen-captures to show how annoying the 140 character limit can be. Agree with him?
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 6, 2016
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 6, 2016
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 6, 2016
The answer from Twitter
Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO, shared a message via his personal account:
“We’ve spent a lot of time observing what people are doing on Twitter, and we see them taking screenshots of text and tweeting it.”
An evasive message which gives not much information about this new feature and Twitter’s future plans. To be continued…
— jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
