Twitter Character Limit

Twitter May Remove 140 Character Limit

SAN FRANCISCO — Soon you may be able to wax poetic on Twitter beyond 140 characters.

The social media service is working on a product that would allow users to share content longer than 140 characters, technology news service Re/code reported Tuesday.

Twitter is also considering modifying how the 140-character limit is measured, for example, excluding links and user handles, Re/code said, citing people familiar with the service.

Twitter is making changes to increase usage and engagement, which has suffered a slowdown in growth that has depressed the stock price and hopes for the company's prospects.

Increasing how many characters people can use in an individual tweet has been debated at Twitter for years, but the topic has gained currency under interim CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Dorsey is one of the leading candidates to become Twitter's permanent CEO. SunTrust analyst Robert Peck says the pace of innovation has quickened at Twitter under Dorsey's stewardship.

Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser declined to comment.

The San Francisco company removed the 140-character limit for private messages, known on Twitter as direct messages, last month.

"Twitter moving beyond 140 characters in the very limited way that's being described makes perfect sense," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. "Essentially, Twitter would take some of the clutter — usernames, links, and images — that currently takes up some of those precious characters and move it outside the scope of the 140 characters."

The benefits of that? Twitter users would have more room and freedom to express themselves and new users would not be put off by users' handles, hashtags and other Twitter "paraphernalia," Dawson said.

"Getting away from the @ and # syntax and making tags and names more legible should help new users feel more comfortable on Twitter," he said. "I see this as an important part of Twitter's effort to improve the user experience for people new to the service, while also making it more usable for experienced users."

Twitter TWTR shares rose 1% on the news but are still trading below the company's initial public offering price of $26. The stock is down nearly 30% this year as the company grapples with slowing user growth, executive departures and growing turmoil over who will be picked to lead the company.

Source: USA Today