Twitter: The140 Characters Limit and What’s New

Twitter had already announced that it will let you write 140 characters, excluding photos and links, now Twitter officially confirmed that the feature will be rolled out for its users on Android as well as iOS.

Twitter Blogpost

So, you can already do a lot in a Tweet, but we want you to be able to do even more. 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. 

This Is How Twitter Will Be Changing:

  • Replies: When replying to a Tweet, @names will no longer count toward the 140-character count. This will make having conversations on Twitter
    easier and more straightforward, no more penny-pinching your words to ensure they reach the whole group.
  • Media attachments: When you add attachments like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or Quote Tweets, that media will no longer count as characters
    within your Tweet. More room for words!
  • Retweet and Quote Tweet yourself: There will be a Retweet button your own Tweets, so you can easily Retweet or Quote Tweet yourself when you
    want to share a new reflection or feel like a really good one went unnoticed.
  • Goodbye, .@: These changes will help simplify the rules around Tweets that start with a username. New Tweets that begin with a username will reach all
    your followers.
  • (That means you’ll no longer have to use the ”.@” convention, which people currently use to broadcast Tweets broadly). If you want a
    reply to be seen by all your followers, you will be able to Retweet it to signal that you intend for it to be viewed more broadly.

All new features incoming on Twitter. (Photo: Twitter)

But hold on. Before you head to Twitter to try it out, this is just a notification that Twitter announced so that developers can work on integrating the features. The changes should make their way to users over the coming months.