This shift probably should have happened years ago.
Twitter will reportedly soon stop counting photos and links towards its 140-character tweet limit, according to Bloomberg’s sources. The shift will reportedly occur in the next two weeks causing publication and brand accounts, which often tweet out story links with an accompanying image, to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Links currently take up 23 characters, even after the micro-blogging service shortens them. Bloomberg says it reached out to Twitter regarding their source’s claim, but the social media platform declined to comment on the report.
Back in January, newly returned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated that his company was looking for ways to shake up the platform’s traditional formula, particularly its 140-character limit. This restriction was originally adopted in order to send Tweets via mobile text message, the only way to send Tweets through the service when it initially launched in 2006, long before the widespread proliferation of smartphones we see today.
Earlier this year reports surfaced indicating Twitter was at one point considering shifting its 140-character limit to 10,000, though the backlash from this rumour likely encouraged the company to ditch these plans. Many Twitter users often cite the short, concise nature of Twitter as its main draw, as well as a differentiating factor that makes its stand out from other social media platforms.
Twitter recently launched an algorithmic that forces users to read the most noteworthy content first, rather than in traditional chronological order.
[source]Bloomberg[/source]
