Twitter has recently announced that they will soon be rolling out tests to allow posts of up to 280 character Tweets on certain Twitter accounts. The social media site has had a strictly enforced limit of 140 characters since it debuted in 2006, so it comes as no surprise that this latest announcement has generated excitement among avid Tweeters.
The character-expansion test will be open ended and the accounts participating in the test have already been granted the 280 character limit. The test accounts will encompass virtually all languages except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean (since a single character conveys more information in those languages.)
One of Twitter's Project Managers, Aliza Rosen, acknowledged in a statement that the 140-character limit was a source of frustration for Twitter users, and that expanding this limit would likely lead to people Tweeting even more.
While Twitter customers have been lobbying for a character-limit increase for many years, it should be noted that people often do not adhere to the 140 character limit, since they can simply release a series of Tweets to convey their messages.
Twitter is unique in that it is one of the few social media sites to impose character limits on messages. Some believe that this leads to a more succinct use of expression, while others believe that the limit is outdated and imposed at a time when Twitter was not really sure how successful the business would be. In any event, the increase of the limit is a welcome change for the site's users.
Twitter testing 280-character limit, but you can use it now (CNET News)