Elon Musk makes good on a promise to expand the microblogging website’s capabilities and put an end to an ‘absurdity.’
Back in November Elon Musk made a promise.
The Tesla (TSLA) – Get Free Report CEO and self-described “Chief Twit” at Twitter (TWTR) – Get Free Report said on Nov. 5 that some big changes would be coming to microblogging website.
“Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots,” he tweeted.
When Twitter first came on the scene, users were limited to 140 characters. That number doubled to 280 characters in November 2017, but Musk was aiming even higher.
And, then, on Feb. 8, it happened.
“need more than 280 characters to express yourself?” the Twitter Blue announcement read. “we know that lots of you do… and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that. so we’re introducing longer Tweets!”
Twitter Blue subscribers in the U.S. are now able type to up to a 4,000 characters.
Twitter said most standard tweeting functions still apply, including posting a picture, using a hashtag, or creating a poll.
“for now, longer Tweets on web can’t be saved as drafts or scheduled to send later,” the announcement said. “but don’t worry, Twitter is still Twitter.”
Longer tweets will be capped at 280 characters on users’ timelines to cut down on excessive scrolling and a clickable “Show more” prompt will appear and allow users to read the entire tweet.
While only Blue subscribers can post longer Tweets, the company said, “anyone and everyone can read them” and “you can reply to, retweet, and quote Tweet a longer Tweet, no matter if you’re a Twitter Blue subscriber or not.”
Unfortunately, Twitter experienced a series of glitches a short time after making the announcement, with users reporting that they were unable to post comments, send messages, or follow new accounts.
As far as the long-form tweets, several commenters did not seem particularly thrilled.
“In my opinion, lifting the 280 character cap DESTROYS one of the things that gave Twitter its identity,” one person tweeted. “You already made the blue check all but worthless, and now this. Whose brilliant idea was this??”
“Twitter works coz it’s short and sharp content,” another comment read. “Tweets work fine. Threads work great. Not sure why the need to change things”
“You twits are just flailing desperately at this point,” one post said. “Also, I will block anyone who sends me a thousand-word tweet.”
