“Longer tweets are coming soon to Twitter,” Kurt Wagner reports for Re/code. “Twitter is building a new feature that will allow users to tweet things longer than the traditional 140-character limit, and the company is targeting a launch date toward the end of Q1, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans.”
“Twitter is currently considering a 10,000 character limit, according to these sources,” Wagner reports. “There is no official launch date set in stone, these sources say. It’s also possible the character limit could fluctuate before it rolls out the final product, which people inside Twitter refer to as ‘Beyond 140.'”
“Twitter is currently testing a version of the product in which tweets appear the same way they do now, displaying just 140 characters, with some kind of call to action that there is more content you can’t see. Clicking on the tweets would then expand them to reveal more content,” Wagner reports. “It’s an important update in what it represents: A willingness to change one of Twitter’s most established product features. The 140-character limit has been around as long as Twitter has; it’s part of the product’s personality. Expanding the limit is a sign that Twitter and Jack Dorsey are willing to make serious changes in hopes of luring new users. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’re you writing, a book?
Twitter would be better off explaining — ad nauseam and ad infinitum if need be — to Joe and Jane Sixpack exactly WTF Twitter is than by trying to become even more fscking Facebook-like. The regular people (non-techies) we know aren’t looking for another Facebook and they generally don’t get what Twitter is, so they don’t use it.
Targeting “average citizens” via traditional means (TV ads, print, online, radio, etc.) and using those avenues to clearly explain what using Twitter can do for them would be a far better use of Twitter’s energy, time, and money in their quest to grow their user base.