Twitter is about to undergo a major overhaul
Change is usually something viewed as unpleasant, yet change is the only thing constant.
First, it was Instagram. Now, it’s Twitter.
In a statement issued by the company Tuesday, Twitter said that it would be rolling out several major changes to its platform over the next few months.
The rumor that the social media platform will finally remove its archetypal 140-character limit has been making its rounds on the internet since time immemorial — and it looks like it will finally become a reality in the future.
In a statement released to the media, Twitter product manager Todd Sherman said:
“Over the past decade, the tweet has evolved from a simple 140-character text message to a rich canvas for creative expression featuring photos, videos, hashtags, Vines and more.”
“So, you can already do a lot in a tweet, but we want you to be able to do even more. In the coming months, we’ll make changes to simplify tweets, including what counts toward your 140 characters.”
Although the impending changes on the social media platform are widely seen as a welcome change, change isn’t necessarily something quickly welcomed by social media users.
Just recently, Instagram rolled out a few changes to its platform — most notably to its icon — which many users did not take very well.
Changes on Twitter, on the other hand, is likely done by its developers with a higher degree of caution — as the company is counting on these changes to entice more users to join Twitter and, ideally, put a halt on the steady decline in the platform’s number of active users.
Twitter has previously made minor changes to its platform, including changing ‘favorites’ into ‘likes’.
Back then, users were not happy with their star icon being turned into a heart one — though the change itself could not be directly linked to the steady decline in the social media platform’s number of active users.
The change in the limit of the number of characters in the platform’s users’ posts isn’t the only change expected to happen within the next few months. Names or handles inserted with media attachments, polls, and replies will no longer be counted against the number of characters on each post.
A 140-character limit was first imposed by Twitter when it was first launched due to the then-restrictions on mobile phone text messaging.
The planned changes on Twitter have so far garnered positive feedbacks from different groups and companies and are so far welcomed by advertisers.