Twitter’s Changing – ‘Beyond 140’ is Coming 😱
by
Gemma Bend
Twitter as we know it, is about to change. Gone will be the days of 140 character limits, snapshots of information and quick, fast paced updates. Beyond 140, as Twitter insiders are calling it, is coming. Longer updates – with rumours citing 10,000 character limits – are due to drop sometime before the end of March 2016. Whilst Twitter is yet to confirm their plans exactly, insiders claim whilst this figure might fluctuate as the platform rolls out the update globally, 10,000 characters will be coming soon to the social network. The figure makes sense – Twitter has already the increased maximum length of the private messaging side of the site, Direct Messages/DMs.
It’s thought that as users, though we’ll be able to type longer messages, our timeline experience won’t be interrupted by the change and instead of seeing what could become paragraphs of text, we’ll instead see the usual 140 character updates, with a ‘see more’ option. This way, Twitter will be able to add content to the platform without changing it’s basic function too much.
Twitter are yet to formalise these plans, however CEO Jack Dorsey did give us an update this week;
— Jack (@jack) January 5, 2016
Personally, I’m unsure about the move. For me, Twitter’s beauty lies within the limit. Facebook and LinkedIn have got the super long updates (and rants) market pretty locked down; Twitter serves purpose for its fast paced, conversational nature and it’s this that I think sets it apart. It’s a quick and easy way to catch up with friends and family, an effective networking tool and a great way of finding out what is going on in the world right now, with news breaking across the platform often ahead of news sites.
Let us know what you think the change will do to Twitter by tweeting us @3ManFactory – or if you’d like to know more about Twitter for business, or how this change could affect businesses on the platform, give us a call and we’ll be happy to chat about it!
