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Photos, Videos, GIFs, and More No Longer Count Towards Twitter's 140-Character Limit

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twitterlogoTwitter today announced that its long-awaited changes to the Tweet character limit have been implemented, giving Twitter users more room for text when sharing media.

Photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count towards the 140-character limit, freeing up character space. Previously, media content took up approximately 24 of the 140 available characters.

Twitter originally said that all @names, such as @MacRumors, would also no longer count towards the 140-character limit, but that change does not appear to have been implemented. There is no mention of it in Twitter's announcement and @names are still counting in the character limit.


It is not clear if Twitter plans to eliminate @names from character count in the future, but the company has said it is exploring additional ways to allow people to better express themselves, so more changes could be in the works.

Top Rated Comments

mw360 Avatar
126 months ago

Twitter originally said ('https://www.macrumors.com/2016/05/24/twitter-140-character-changes/') that all @names, such as @MacRumors, would also no longer count towards the 140-character limit, but that change does not appear to have been implemented.
No they did not. Only some @names...

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/doing-more-with-140-characters

"Replies: @names that auto-populate at the start of a reply Tweet will not count towards the character limit (but new non-reply Tweets starting with a @mention will count, as will @mentions added explicitly by the user in the body of the Tweet)."
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
126 months ago
If no @ names counted, then people would be able to spam by adding dozens of names if you think about it.
No they did not. Only some @names...

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/doing-more-with-140-characters

"Replies: @names that auto-populate at the start of a reply Tweet will not count towards the character limit (but new non-reply Tweets starting with a @mention will count, as will @mentions added explicitly by the user in the body of the Tweet)."
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
126 months ago
Just waiting for that final step, when they make words no longer count towards the 140 character limit.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S.B.G Avatar
126 months ago
This is welcomed news and I sure hope they eliminate usernames from the count as well.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
126 months ago
I wonder if they will finally update the Twitter app for Mac and fix the outstanding bugs. Can't believe that they've left those issues live for this long.

Bug: Post a reply to a tweet and it does not appear in the discussion below. You must leave the tweet and come back to it to see your reply. Very annoying.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
126 months ago
About time! Loved adding videos and images today without it killing what I write.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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