The tweets are long now. CNN reports that, for the first time since launching in 2006, Twitter has expanded its character limit for most users. Beginning Tuesday evening, Twitter users will have 280 characters instead of the previous 140. "We want it to be easier and faster for everyone to express themselves," Twitter tweeted. The company tested a 280-character limit with small group of users in September and states those users spent more time on Twitter, gained more followers, and had more "engagement," according to the AV Club. (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-speaking Twitter users will continue to be limited to 140 characters, and Quartz explains why in, obviously, 280 characters.)
As is their wont, many Twitter users complained about the change Tuesday. Perhaps that's because, as the AV Club puts it, users in the test group "were quick to embrace their newfound godhood by posting unnecessarily wordy complaints and repeating the same jokes about adding a message board-style signature to every tweet." But Twitter says the change shouldn't be that noticeable in the long run. It says most test users stopped using all 280 characters once they got tired of the jokes. Only 5% of tweets from users in the test group were longer than 140 characters, and only 2% were over 190 characters, according to Twitter. Meanwhile, a few days before Twitter gave users an extra 140 characters, Gizmodo reports one intrepid user figured out a loophole for a 35,000-character tweet. (More Twitter stories.)
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