So there has been a lot of talk lately about Twitter. Particularly on the recent revelation that Twitter may be considering eliminating it’s 140 character maximum for each tweet, and perhaps replacing it with a 10,000 character limit instead.
Now obviously for something like Twitter, arguably one of the cornerstones of modern-day social media, a platform that has literally played a key role in toppling governments, something like changing their 140 character max to 10,000 is somewhat of a huge deal. Mainly because it essentially redefines what a tweet actually is, and will have major ramifications on how Twitter could look like for it’s users. Now obviously, there are Pros and Cons for a move like this, but before we get into that, let’s take a look at how this could potentially impact Twitter’s user experience.
Let’s begin by how this will impact the basic unit of Twitter, the “tweet”. The 140 character max has been around since Twitter’s introduction all those years ago. And this has essentially played a major role in how communication via Twitter has been made. Now because of the 140 character limit, each individual tweet is essentially a little tidbit of information, something that can be easily read and digested. It’s something that you can do “in the moment” and usually only people whom are looking at their feeds +/- 1 hour can really see the tweet, mainly because it gets drowned out in all the other tweets that come after it.
And this has essentially defined what users have come to expect when they go on Twitter. Because tweets are so short, there isn’t a problem with just seeing a constant stream of them. Because all the updates are arranged in chronological order on Twitter, and because users have a tendency to follow A LOT of people all at once, opening up Twitter is essentially the same as opening yourself up to a torrent of information that comes flooding in all at once. And this torrent of information is only made manageable because the tweets are so short, that it is easy to quickly read on and immediately go to the next, or skip some tweets entirely. Usually really interesting tweets (like news tweets, or pictures) have links, so we are still able to get more information if we want by clicking the link.
Of course, this isn’t entirely representative of the Twitter-experience, Twitter has been hard at work introducing new features, such as the “Highlights” and the “While you’ve been away…”, that attempt to organize your Twitterfeed based on what interests you, rather than on who’s tweeting at that immediate moment. But by and large, Twitter is still seen as that place where you go to “catch up” with what’s happening at the moment. In fact, it’s the first place I go to when I find out something major is happening.
So, that’s the essential Twitter experience, short, sweet, and allows you to process a whole lot of information/tweets in a moment. And all of these are due to the fact that Twitter has limited its Tweets to 140 characters.
Now, the rub is, how would a 10,000 character tweet change all that? Let’s just put it into perspective how much a 10,000 character tweet actually is. This entire blog post, up to now? I’ve only used about 3,000 characters.
I’ve only used about 3,000 characters up to this point.
Now try to imagine Twitter, as you know it now, with tweets that are 3 times as long as this blog post. It’s vastly different from what you expect right? Actually, that makes Twitter more like Medium than anything else.
But the idea of a 10,000 character tweet totally puts the concept of Twitter on its head. You could argue that the entire Twitter experience was built around 140 character tweets. So you could imagine that if they do decide to push through with that idea, then we will definitely be seeing a lot of changes to how we experience Twitter. But with those changes can come opportunities for improvements, and possibly failures.
Pros
We will have more space to say what we want.
So one of the not-so-surprising things about 2016 is that we now have more to say, and with only 140 characters that doesn’t leave a lot of opportunity for us to get it all out there. But that doesn’t stop people from trying! People find a variety of different ways to supplement the 140 character limit that they have been given with. Of course there are the ever dependable links:
Others have also opted to go for GIFs:
Other’s have chosen to chain tweets together:
While others like Jack up at the beginning, have tried taking pictures of text to get around the limit.
So Twitter definitely has something to gain by allowing people the opportunity to say more things on Twitter. Especially when they want to be able to engage people at a higher level than just the occasional update.
Con
Of course the obvious downside to this is something that we have already mentioned before. Twitter’s entire design and experience was built around the idea that a tweet would only be so long, and that you would be able to digest large numbers of individual tweets. But when those tweets become exponentially longer, then there has to be a major overhaul of how the tweets are to be handled and presented. Twitter will become something vastly different than what it is now. And if the experience with Facebook is any indication, users hate it when you muck up something.
But if these changes do come about, in what form will they arrive it? Will Twitter still be chronological based, or will it be organized? Will we see the full tweet, or only the beginning? Will we still see the tendency of a massive number of tweets per second? Or will people slow down?
These are questions that have yet to be answered, heck I think the 10,000 figure for the new character limit hasn’t even yet been officially confirmed by Twitter. I suppose only time will tell for us if this new idea of changing the tweet to becoming something longer will play into Twitter’s favor or not. But I am looking forward to what they come out with.
P.S. This entire post? Only about 6,000 characters.
