Twitter Might Be Casting Aside 280-Character Limits With ‘Article’ Format

One of the most characteristic features of Twitter was the 140-character limit on a single tweet, which is now at 280. It keeps things short, snappy, and concise—perfect for our dwindling attention spans. 

But sometimes compressing a thought into that space might lead to misinterpretation. And sometimes we just have a bunch more to say. Social media is social for a reason, isn’t it? 

Now, it appears there’s something brewing that might make it easier for opinions to be explored loud and clear on the platform. Spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, renowned for reverse-engineering apps, is ‘Twitter Articles’. 

This could mean that, instead of needing to attach a screenshot of the Notes app to a tweet in order to really get a point across, users might be able to write lengthier pieces right on the platform itself. 

Twitter is working on “Twitter Articles” and the ability to create one within Twitter

Possibility a new longform format on Twitter pic.twitter.com/Srk3E6R5sz

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 2, 2022

PCMag notes that this comes after Twitter acquired Revue, a newsletter service, last year. Perhaps this was already cooking in the background when that decision was made, or vice versa. 

Further details are yet to come, including whether this feature will remain free to all users or if it’ll be one behind the paywalled Twitter Blue. 

“We’re always looking into new ways to help people start and engage in conversations on Twitter,” a spokesperson tells Social Media Today. “We’ll share more about our work here soon.”

Twitter introduced a workaround to the character limit by first making it easier for users to create threads, consisting of multiple tweets at once. These make it easier to explore a longer idea because all the tweets are linked and all readers need to do is scroll to the next one. 

[via PCMag and Social Media Today, image via Primakov / Shutterstock.com]