Twitter’s expansion to 280 characters has been met with a mixed reaction from users.
The social media site confirmed on Tuesday night it was doubling its character limit from 140 — which had been in place since the site launched in 2006 — following a trial.
While the increased space was embraced by some — US president Donald Trump quickly began tweeting with the additional characters while on his Asian tour — others criticised the change.
Constructing a 'good' sentence from 140 carefully chosen characters gave me SUCH joy. Now it's ALL FECKEN RUINED
— Marian Keyes (@MarianKeyes) November 7, 2017
*enjoys 140 chars*
— Eleanor Tiernan (@eleanortiernan) November 8, 2017
*sees 280 chars*
*wants 280 chars*
*checks who has gotten 280 chars*
*mimics in hope of getting 280 chars*
*waits*
*overruns on tweet*
*realises had 280 chars all along*
*goes to tweet*
*realises does not have 280 chars worth of thoughts*
*feels sad for self*
#280characters #280CharacterTweet
— The Invisible Man (@invisibleman_17) November 8, 2017
New #twitter280 looks like.... pic.twitter.com/YUxYdcrdyE
1. 280 characters is a disaster. 2. Why don’t I have 280 characters yet?
— Hugh Linehan (@hlinehan) November 8, 2017
We all have 280 characters? Well, as Shakespeare wrote, “Brevity is the soul of wit. The soul of wit is what brevity is. Brevity? Soul of wit? They're the same thing. Like if you had brevity in one hand and the soul of wit in the other, you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart.”
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) November 8, 2017
If you think 280 characters is bad in English, in Arabic you can write a whole opinion column in 280 characters.
— Karl Sharro (@KarlreMarks) November 8, 2017
140 Twitter vs 280 Twitter pic.twitter.com/NroJ4cY1oH
— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) November 7, 2017
Someone should create a Twitter bot that auto-screams at anyone who tweets over 280 characters.
— Chris Godfrey (@ChrisPJGodfrey) November 8, 2017
US presenter Stephen Colbert wrote: "Dear Twitter,
If there’s one thing we could ask for from 2017, it wouldn’t be “more Twitter.”
Thanks,
Stephen”
Irish writer Marian Keyes is clearly not a fan: "Christ lads! I think my character count has been upgraded to the DREAD 280. No, no, no, no, NO!!!! This be UNNATURAL! This be AGIN God and nature. Tes an abomination! Feck them anyway, FECK THEM"
User Tom Cowie posted: "The best bit about 280 is never having to shorten whilst, amidst, and amongst ever again."
Stephen Lobo wrote: "I've always thought that 140 characters were too little to effectively convey ones thoughts.
“And now that we have 280, am wondering whether a thought more than 140 characters is a thought worth tweeting. Or worth reading.
“Still figuring out how to fill the space. Just made it.”
However, model Chrissy Teigen quickly voiced her displeasure at the change with the post: "I will NEVER use 280 characters nor will I favorite or retweet a tweet with them. THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG."
Many tweeted their support for an “edit button” being introduced instead of the new character limit.
Concerns were also raised over the social platform becoming too crowded with longer tweets.
Lianne Warnell posted: "The whole point of Twitter was its brevity #280characters."
Journalist Michael Slezak said: "Gah. Who has time to read all these 280 character tweets. My brain has a 140 character limit now."
Twitter said it believes the higher limit will not affect the short, sharp nature of the platform.
The company's product manager Aliza Rosen said the company's initial trial found length habits did not change dramatically.
“We — and many of you — were concerned that timelines may fill up with 280-character tweets, and people with the new limit would always use up the whole space,” she said.
“But that didn’t happen. Only 5 per cent of tweets sent were longer than 140 characters and only 2% were over 190 characters.”
The expanded limit is rolling out around the world including Ireland, but will not apply to tweets in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, which can include more information in fewer characters, Twitter said.
– with PA
