The 140 character limit is the most iconic thing about Twitter when it started way back in 2016 and that is why it was referred to as the SMS of the internet. That brevity has been its strength and liability in that it enabled people to come up with short posts about an event while also limiting them from tweeting longer experiences.
A week ago, it was reported that Twitter was going to make a big change and it was related to the 140 character rule. Now, Twitter has made it official and added a few surprises.
First, just as before, media attachments (photos, videos, GIFs, polls and even Quote tweets) will no longer be counted in the 140 character limit. This means there will be more room for you to add your caption which is great! This also applies to replies where you have to use the @ button. Twitter will no longer consider the handle you are mentioning as part of the 140 character count.
We were expecting that but now the company introduced other interesting changes to Twitter experience. You will now be able to retweet yourself and quote tweet yourself. Twitter says you might use this “when you want to share a new reflection or feel like a really good one went unnoticed.” Finally, Twitter will do away with rules like doing away with the .@ rule which we used when you wanted to make sure a mention is broadcasted to your followers.
These changes will not be rolled out soon as Twitter says they will be availed in the next coming months. Twitter will become so different this year and they are just warming up.
