Twitter is changing the way it works, after 10 years since it made tis debut. The microblogging service has truly evolved into a proper social network, but has annoyed users for long with its 140 character limit per Tweet..
This including everything from a blank space, and punctuation, to any URL, media you attach to a Tweet. Even Hashtags were counted against the limit. This actually led to users shortening words, and abandoning all punctuation and grammar, which annoyed many a user.
But now, Twitter has announced that photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets (retweet with a comment) will no longer count towards the 140 characters limit.
This is not exactly a surprise consideringn that Twitter did announce its intention, back in May 2016, probably as a social experiment. Many users rejoiced after hearing the news, while many others felt Twitter was following other social networks, and abandoning its original style and charm.
In my personal opinion, Twitter has done the right move. A picture or video should not count towards the text content of a tweet, it just doesn’t make sense. It also caused confusion amongst many.
Besides, a Tweet accompanied by a relevant photo (as seen in the above GIF), attracts more users to engage with the message, and maybe even converse with the original poster or even help in spreading the word around.
And in the age of smartphones, people often take a snap of special moments, and post it on their Twitter timeline. If Twitter hadn’t disabled media content as being counted towards posting a message, it would be lagging behind its rivals, and could have even prevented users from posting content because there was no room in the “140 character limited Tweet”.
Kudos to Twitter for making the right decision.