Twitter to Expand 140-Character Limit With New Product

Twitter is planning to introduce a new solution that will allow users to create tweets that exceed 140 characters in length, reports Re/code. Twitter will implement longer tweets through a new product, but it is not yet clear what that product will look like or how it will work.

There are existing services designed to let users publish long-form content on Twitter, like TwitLonger, which directs users to a website to read a full tweet, or OneShot, which lets users post images of text, but Twitter may have a better solution in mind for its own product.

Twitter is also said to be considering removing links and usernames from character counts, which would also expand the allowed length of tweets.

In addition to the long-form product, execs have been openly discussing the idea of tweaking how Twitter measures its 140-character limit by removing things like links and user handles from the count, multiple sources say. In the past, Twitter has tinkered with the limit in other ways. Twitter Cards are still beholden to the 140-character limit but are intended to help people (and advertisers) share lots of information, and Twitter added a "retweet with comment" option in April to give people more room to comment on tweets they share.

Twitter has already been making moves towards expanding its signature limitations. Earlier this year, the company officially removed the 140-character limit from Direct Messages, allowing for unrestricted conversation much like other chat and messaging apps.