Sources seem to suggest that Twitter (NASDAQ: TWTR) will receive an update and it will permit users to write messages longer than 140 characters.
There is some discussion among several investors and users who have asked the social network for the introduction of new features since the way people use it has changed with the massive adoption of smartphones, it appears that users want to share larger contents.
According to tech blog Re/code, the company lead by Jack Dorsey will introduce the new function approximately by the end of March, it appears that Twitter is considering to allow users publish contents with up to 10,000 characters, as the blog reported referring to sources that are familiar with the plans of the company.
Twitter wrote in its official webpage its mission is to give everyone the power to create and share information instantly without barriers. In order to achieve that, the social network introduced recently a new feature called Moments, and users can now enjoy event summaries.
The development of the new expected function is being called “Beyond 140” inside Twitter. That being said, the company is testing a design that will allow users visualize tweets the same way as they have always done, however a new button or gesture could invite people to expand the publication in order to see more content.
It is known that Twitter has always been careful with the design of the way it displays the content, most of the users want to enjoy more richer contents, nonetheless they don’t want to have their screen occupied by just a few users.
“So on the roadmap going forward, we have a number of iterations that continue to make Twitter easier to understand and make it far more approachable than it has been in the past. And then we’re also looking at some more bold rethinking and some more bold experiences that really speak to some patterns that we’ve seen on Twitter from day 1,” said Twitter Co-Founder, and CEO on a conference call with investors in October.
Technology critics have stated that the company have been trying for a few months to offer new updates, and to increase its users’ engagement. The new feature that will allow publications with more than 140 characters may not change the way people use Twitter, because several media and users already add links to offer users longer contents. However, it will still represents a potent update, because the experience of publishing longer contents could be be more fluent and natural.
Spam is another relevant phenomenon that is being discussed by Twitter. It was reported that the social network will control the amount of users that can be mentioned in one tweet. Also, conversations with Twitter measurement partners are being done in order to prepare them to manage the new update. Several users have already tweeted their opinions about the new rumors.
“In unending quest to ruin the product, Twitter execs press ahead w/ 10,000-character limit.” Said Jim Roberts, @nycjim. “If Twitter moves to 10,000 characters, email must move to 140 characters. It’s only fair,” said another user, @MGSiegler.
By 2016, Twitter has 320 million active users worldwide, of which 80 percent use the social network with a mobile gadget. Also there are 1 billion unique visits monthly to sites with embedded Tweets, according to Twitter’s official website.
Source: Re/code