Have a lot to tell the world, but the man is holding you back? Limiting your musings to a mere 140 characters including links and pics? Well then, you're in luck. The man, specifically Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has decided to throw you and all the users of his social media service a bone. Starting September 19, The Verge reports that links and attached media will no longer count toward Twitter's famed 140 character limit per tweet.
At present, media and links both take up about 23 characters each — so, for a tweet that includes both a photo and a link (like most of SFist's tweets), users now have an extra 46 characters to play with. The change was first announced in May, but back then no firm roll-out date had been attached to the news.
Think of all the things you can say with those extra 46 characters. Like, for example, "46 Characters Won't Save Struggling Company." Or, what about, "They can fix this but not harassment?" Both of which are very useful things to be able to tweet alongside, say, a link to news about a possible buyout, or its inability to deal with cyberbullying.
For a brief moment earlier this year, Twitter execs flirted with the idea of doing away character limits altogether, but that idea was quickly shelved after a mostly negative response from users of the service.
Dorsey, meanwhile, is stoked for the pent-up creativity this move will unleash. "This is the most notable change we’ve made in recent times around conversation in particular, and around giving people the full expressiveness of the 140 characters," Dorsey told The Verge back in May. "I’m excited to see even more dialog because of this."
Me too, Dorsey. I'm sure it's all going to be pure gold (
Previously: Twitter Will Exclude Links And Photos From 140-Character Limit