Twitter’s Character Limit Expansion: What It Means for Users and the Platform

In 2017, Twitter doubled its 140-character limit to 280, much to the delight of users who found it easier to express themselves. Now, Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk has teased the expansion of the tweet character limit to a whopping 10,000 characters, according to his tweet response to a user’s query.

The tweet in question was posted by @ThePrimeagen, who asked if Twitter could add code blocks to tweets. To this, Musk replied that the company will soon extend the long-form tweets’ character limit.

While Musk did not clarify whether the new feature would only be available to Twitter Blue subscribers or open to non-paid users, it’s clear that Twitter is looking to make significant changes to its platform to attract more users and increase revenue.

This announcement comes just a month after Twitter announced that it would increase the tweet character limit to 4,000 characters for its Blue subscribers in the US. This is only the second time in the company’s 16-year history that it has tweaked its character count.

According to a Forbes report (article behind paywall), Musk has strongly suggested that subscription revenue is the only way for Twitter to remain financially solvent in the long term. However, Twitter Blue has only had around 180,000 subscribers as of mid-January, which accounts for less than 0.2% of monthly active users.

Since Musk took over as CEO of Twitter, he has introduced several modifications, such as a $8 paid subscription for Twitter blue badge, gold and silver ticks, and reinstating banned or controversial accounts. He has also expressed his vision of seeing Twitter having more than one billion monthly users in 12 to 18 months.

The potential expansion of tweet character limits to 10,000 characters is a significant development for Twitter, as it would allow users to share more in-depth and complex ideas on the platform. This could attract more users, especially professionals, and academics, who need more space to express their thoughts.

However, it’s worth noting that Twitter has not officially announced this expansion yet, and it remains to be seen how the company will roll out this feature and whether it will be successful. Nonetheless, it’s an exciting development that Twitter users should keep an eye on.