Twitter to double its character limit from 140 to 280, aims to boost appeal

Can’t fit your Tweet into 140 characters? 🤔

We’re trying something new with a small group, and increasing the character limit to 280! Excited about the possibilities? Read our blog to find out how it all adds up. 👇https://t.co/C6hjsB9nbL

— Twitter (@Twitter) September 26, 2017

San Francisco-based Twitter said the move aims to address “a major cause of frustration” for many users.

“Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people tweeting in English,” the company said in a blog post.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people Tweeting — which is awesome!”

Before deciding whether to launch it to every one, the giant is testing the new feature with a small subset of its 328 million users.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a tweet -- we've all been there, and it's a pain,” product manager Aliza Rosen and software engineer Ikuhiro Ihara said in a blog post.

“We're doing something new: we're going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming.”

“Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people tweeting in English, but it is not for those tweeting in Japanese,” Rosen and Ihara said.

“Also, in all markets, when people don't have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting.”