Twitter has announced that it will soon relax its 140-character limit by not counting Media, links, and @replies – meaning users can include media, links, and @mentions while still getting their 140 characters to play with. This is a very welcome change, as tweets has evolved to more than simple messages and nowadays it is hard to see a tweet without any media attachments like photos, GIFs, videos, and polls.
Interestingly, Twitter also announced that new tweets starting with @ would be broadcasted to all your followers. This feature means you no longer have to use “.@” to broadcast your tweets to your followers. With rumors that Twitter will also raise the 140 character limit, it seems that Twitter is trying to refresh a system that has largely stalled from a financial perspective.
Here is what will change:
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
We’ll be enabling the Retweet button on 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.
You will not see these changes right now and it will be available over the coming months. This will also give developers more time to update their products as these changes have a significant impact on Tweets.
