Twitter’s 280 character limit will change the way we bant and sub

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey says: “This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence!”

Twitter’s other founder, Christopher Isaac ‘Biz’ Stone, tweeted that: “originally, our constraint was 160 (limit of a text) minus username. But we noticed @biz got 1 more than @jack. For fairness, we chose 140. Now texts are unlimited. Also, we realize that 140 isn't fair—there are differences between languages. We're testing the limits. Hello 280!”

Aliza Rosen who is product manager at Twitter says: “We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we're doing something new: we're going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).

"Although this is only available to a small group right now, we want to be transparent about why we are excited to try this.

“Although we feel confident about our data and the positive impact this change will have, we want to try it out with a small group of people before we make a decision to launch to everyone.

“Twitter is about brevity. It's what makes it such a great way to see what's happening. Tweets get right to the point with the information or thoughts that matter. That is something we will never change”.

Like you’ve already read above, the 280 character limit is still a test run and could still be ditched depending on feedback and data garnered by the micro-blogging site.

Only a select few are using the 280 twitter character limit at the moment, and no, US President Donald Trump isn’t one of the handpicked for obvious reasons.

As you’d expect, a handful of Twitter users are opposed to the ideasomething Twitter itself understands.

“We understand since many of you have been Tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters – we felt it, too. But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint. We are excited to share this today, and we will keep you posted about what we see and what comes next”, says Rosen.

In any case, I consider the Twitter character expansion a decent development and proposition. The world has become more expressive and it’s always banter season on Twitter. Threads have come in handy as folks try to relay opinions on a wide range of issues.

ALSO READ: Here's how to get 280-character tweets on Twitter right now

But have you at any time reached that point where you want to bant or relay information in full and 140 characters prove painfully inadequate; and then you have to do another tweet or a thread?

Imagine fitting your bant or snide remarks in one tweet, complete with gifs or pictures without having to resort to a thread (which is still great by the way, but which can be frustrating at times)?

At 280, Twitter still retains the brevity factor-- which will remain its hallmark and distinguishing factor.

While revenues of other social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are soaring, Twitter has been struggling to make money as users flock to other apps. Something to do with its character limit and inability of folks to express themselves the way they’d have loved to?

Twitter also lags behind in terms of average monthly and annual users as folks find in Facebook, a more expressive platform.

Look, 140 character limit has since served its purpose and we all need to move to the next stage on Twitter. Doubling character limit never hurt anyone. It may clog the timeline, but in no time, we'll all get used to it.

Welcome, 280!