Twitter might double the character limit for tweets to 280

The social networking service Twitter might just bump up the character limit on its platform. The micro-blogging site is testing out 280-character tweets which are double of the previous 140 character limit. Twitter’s 140 character limit trademark made its debut a decade ago on July 15, 2006.

“Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet – we’ve all been there, and it’s a pain,”
Twitter wrote on its blog.

The new 280 character limit which is currently in testing stage will be rolled out only to a small percentage of users. Twitter says that changes has been made to enable users to express their emotions better in languages “impacted by cramming”. While this include English and few languages among others, Japanese, Chinese and Korean language will be excluded.  Twitter in its blog explains that these three languages users can convey more information in just one character compared to one character in English. The company through its findings note that while a small percent (0.4 %) of tweets sent in Japanese have 140 characters, about 9 percent of tweets in English hit the 140 character limit.

“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. 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 – which is awesome!”
Twitter mentions on its blog

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The company further notes that many users might have an emotional attachment to a 140 character limit since they have been using it for years. Twitter is just testing out this new format which might or might not pan out in the near future. Additionally, we will also love to see Twitter add a method to edit the tweets as that is what people have been asking for some time now.