Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has confirmed that the number of characters that can be used in a tweet will go up from 280 to 4,000 at the beginning of next month.
The tech billionaire plans to make a number of changes to the social media platform over the next few months after buying it for $44 billion last October. This feature, which was first suggested in December, is one of those changes.
This is only the second time in Twitter’s 17-year history that the number of characters allowed has changed. In 2017, the limit went from 140 to 280.
Mr. Musk said that long tweets would “get the same screen space in the timeline as other tweets, but you’ll be able to click for more.”
It’s part of a “much larger” redesign of the user interface, which will also add the ability to swipe between recommended and followed tweets and a “silent like” button that works like a bookmark.
“Later this quarter, we’ll also add simple formatting tools like bold, underline, and font size,” he said in a tweet.
“The goal is to let people post long-form content directly on Twitter, instead of making them use another site. Twitter will continue to suggest that tweets be short.”
Long Twitter threads, which have become a popular way to share longer pieces of content since the feature was added in 2017, may be coming to an end.
Some Twitter users didn’t like the new long-form feature. Some said that what makes Twitter different from Facebook or Medium is that tweets are short.
“Twitter content is supposed to be short and to the point; that’s part of its appeal,” fashion blogger Kat Moon wrote. “Tweets aren’t meant to be blog posts in their own right.”
Noah Gittell, a film critic, said, “Anyone who posts a long tweet is automatically blocked.”
Other Twitter users said the feature could be a way to get people to sign up for Twitter Blue, a premium version of the platform that costs $8 per month and lets users edit their tweets. This would be especially helpful for long posts with spelling or grammar mistakes.
