Twitter is now letting you type as much as you please in Direct Messaging.
There is some good news for avid social media users in an announcement that Twitter users can fly free, the 140 DM character limit is gone, and the set number is far above most can match. Previously to the update, Direct Messaging via Twitter featured the same restrictive amount of characters as live tweets, which was quite unpopular among users.
While there is a certain amount of understanding and multiple reasons why public posts require a limited number, private conversations were another matter entirely. But, now, the company has let their users know that they are free to chat on and on when using Direct Messaging. It’s a service that allows two people to discuss privately among themselves about various events around the world or simple day-to-day matters.
The previous 140 characters cap was limiting for those who enjoy telling long stories, but even they might find it challenging to match the 10,000 word count now. That would have to be quite a story, likely with a complex plotline, some drama and spare time for philosophic conclusions at the end.
While all the 300 million Twitter users are more drawn to the public aspect of the social media app, it’s a certain step forward that the company is apparently making in order to boost user numbers. They have been facing a bit of a drop in the market, in spite of being quite popular among many. However, considering one of its rivals is Facebook, at 1.4 billion users, Twitter has a hard race ahead.
It has been seeing a very slow growth and a slight drop last week that they recovered from in the meantime. Regardless, user account numbers are apparently rising at a much more sluggish pace than expected or wanted.
Many have also inquired how will the update affect public tweets and, the company’s product manager Sachin Agarwal, replied quickly and firmly: it won’t. Unfortunately, it seems that Twitter is not budging an inch from their set 140 characters limit for regular tweets, though that is still quite enough, considering the app’s purpose.
There is considerably more charm to a concise and short tweet than a rambling that might go on for pages and likely no one will fully read. Not to mention it has the potential of disrupting the entire home page.
The new update will be rolling out in the next couple of weeks on Android, iOS, Twitter for Mac, twitter.com and TweetDeck, though there will reportedly still be a limitation for those who use Direct Messaging via SMS.
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