Twitter appears ready to expand beyond 140-character tweets

The company may soon ditch its iconic 140 character tweet limit in favour of a greatly expanded 10,000 character limit, says the publication, citing multiple unnamed sources within the publicly traded company.

According to media reports, Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet longer than its traditional 140-character limit.

Twitter may also warn users when they reach the 140-character threshold to encourage concision.

According to Re/code, Twitter is considering expanding the maximum length of a tweet from 140 characters to 10,000 characters. While that limit may fluctuate before the new feature is finalized, it’s expected to roll out as early as the end of Q1 2016.

Critics claim that if tweets take up more screen space, users will engage with fewer, and it might turn people off. Fortune concluded, “Twitter’s user growth remains slow to non-existent, which means large brands are likely to be less interested; that in turn means more low-rent, direct-response advertising…”

The Re/code reports the changes will be announced in March.

“We see [people] taking screenshots of text and tweeting it. Instead, what if that text… was actually text?” he said. “Text that could be searched”.

Shares in Twitter, which were already trading at all-time lows amid increasing negativity about the service’s prospects, fell nearly 3 per cent. Text that could be highlighted.

It’s being reported that Twitter is set to remove its 140 character limit for tweets. Clicking on the tweets would then expand them to reveal more content. The point of this is to keep the same look and feel for your timeline, although this design is not necessarily final, sources told Re/code.

Twitter users are, however, quite disappointed with this move and expressed their opposition to the new feature with the hashtag #beyond140.