Twitter calculates photos and usernames from character count
Twitter users will have more of the 140 characters of a short message available for their texts in the future. Mentioned user names as well as attached videos and images will no longer be included, Twitter announced on Tuesday
The company thus confirmed media reports from last week. Previously, images and videos alone reduced the possible length of a tweet by a good 20 characters. The financial service Bloomberg reported last week that Internet links would also no longer be counted, but Twitter did not make any announcement on this at first. The restriction to 140 characters dates back to the first version of Twitter. At that time, the service was still running on an SMS basis and it was a technical limitation. After the switch to a web platform, the limit remained and became a Twitter trademark. Co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey admitted that some users would like to send longer messages. He brought up lifting the limit, but then said himself, "The 140 characters are staying." The new rule should take effect in a few months, Twitter explained without giving a specific date. "We want to inform the software developers early," said Germany boss Thomas de Buhr. "Now it's about staying with the 140 characters, but making them completely available for communication." Twitter is struggling with only slow growth in user numbers, and its stock is in the basement because of it. (SDA)
