Not long ago, I saw a tweet from Actualidad iPhone in which the news headline was cut off. If you follow us on Twitter, you will have noticed that we publish the headline of the article, a link to the post and the featured image of it. Currently, both the photo and the link subtract characters from the 140 character limit that Twitter has established, but that is something that could have its days numbered.
According to Bloomberg, who cites sources familiar with the subject, Twitter will stop counting photos and links as part of 140 character messages. The person who provided the information wants to remain anonymous and ensures that the change could be made within two weeks. At the moment, links are 23 characters long, while photos are 24, so if both are sent, the limit drops from 140 characters to 93.
Twitter will allow more information to be added in two weeks
It is clear that Twitter is an important social network and, although much of its charm is due to that limit of 140 characters, it is a fact that sometimes we need something more to be able to express ourselves. That is the reason why users have to send a screenshot to a notes application with the written text or use applications like TwitLonger, a service that allows us to write much more text that is accessed through a link that is included in the tweet.
Personally, I am clear about what the next step should be: it had been speculated that the limit would be increased to 10.000 characters, something that is already available in direct messages, but that could make reading our Timeline a nightmare, for the best thing would be to include a service that works like TwitLonger. The idea is that the messages remain 140 characters long (that the photos and the links do not count is fine), but that we can activate an option to include more text if we wish. The best thing would be not to have the default option active, since this could make our Timeline fill with unnecessary links in cases in which a message can be edited and comply with the 140 character limit, if not activate it in a tweet that required it (as long as, as I said, it could not be edited to fit 140 characters).
In any case, what seems to be closer to us is that the photos and the links stop counting towards the 140 character limit, something that will happen in two weeks. The question that remains is: will they release this API so that we can use it in third-party applications or it will only be available from the official versions?