4 Tiny & Important Updates Coming To Twitter

Big changes are coming to Twitter — well, in actuality, a lot of tiny new things that will completely change your Twitter experience. The site's 140-character limit can be a little frustrating, often forcing users to post multiple tweets in order to finish their thought, but the conciseness is what sets it apart from Facebook's endlessly long posts. In response to users' wishes for more flexibility, Twitter plans to roll out some small fixes "over the coming months" that will maintain its defining features but make sharing on the site and app much easier.

In a blog post announcing the upcoming alterations, Twitter's senior product manager Todd Sherman gave the impression that bigger changes could be coming in the near future too, writing: "In addition to the changes outlined above, we have plans to help you get even more from your Tweets. We're exploring ways to make existing uses easier and enable new ones, all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections, and conversations."

Despite rumors earlier this year that the 140-character maximum would increase to a staggering 10,000 characters, Twitter's CEO assured users that the existing limit would remain. "It's staying. It's a good constraint for us and it allows for of-the-moment brevity," Jack Dorsey said on TODAY in March. The company is open to making less drastic changes though, and recognized that people want room for slightly more words. Here's what will be different on Twitter very soon.

Replies

When replying to someone's tweet, their name will no longer detract from your 140 available characters. This will be especially useful when replying to multiple people, since all the usernames currently cut into how much you can actually say to them.

".@"

You're probably all too familiar with the ".@" on Twitter — what you're forced to do for a post directed at another user to show up on your follower's feeds. Not any more! New tweets beginning with a username will automatically go to all your followers, and replies can easily be shared by retweeting them.

Attachments

The most beneficial change in terms of preserving your available characters is that all media — photos, GIFs, polls, and quoted tweets — will no longer subtract from your 140 characters. That means you can upload a photo, which now takes up 24 characters, and proceed to type out a full 140 characters alongside the image. However, normal links will still count toward the limit.

Retweet Yourself

Because Twitter is largely about self-promotion, it will become easier to retweet and quote yourself. The retweet button will appear on your own tweets, so you can shamelessly share your best posts again and again.

Get ready to say a little bit more to your Twitter users on a more streamlined site.

Images: Giphy (4)