Discuss: Will a 280-character limit work for Twitter?

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I love Twitter. It’s a platform I regularly use not really to share but to get quick updates on what’s happening around the world. It’s great that the social network makes people work a little harder keeping their tweets concise and straightforward. I just have to read less than 140 characters to get the information I need. For blogs or longer posts, I go to Facebook and LinkedIn. But all of this might change soon.

Twitter’s data shows that 9 percent of the people tweeting in English hit the 140-character limit. So, it’s basically trying to make their lives easier. But the remaining 91 percent who’ve learned to express themselves in 140 characters will have to unlearn that habit should Twitter make the 280-character limit official. (Read Twitter’s announcement of the trial here.)

Photo credit: Twitter.

The platform would have close to twice the number of characters sharing almost the same amount of information. You would need to scroll twice as much to hear from the same number of people. This would make things slower for people who log on to Twitter to get a quick peek of what’s happening around them. There’s a chance that the posts would not get as much attention as they do now, which could discourage people from posting more.

My personal theory is that one of the main drivers behind Twitter’s success is the fact that it made it super simple for people to express themselves, without worrying about being judged on their English skills, usage of slang language, or ability to write long sentences. It brought together a whole new group of people who wanted to express themselves but didn’t have the time, confidence, or the ability to write blogs or longer posts. Meanwhile, it is super easy for people to consume concise content on the platform. If the 140-character limit is a pain, changing it to 280 characters may also be a pain in some way. So, why not remove the constraints altogether?

At my company, Wishfie, we faced a similar dilemma on the right length of videos. After a lot of research, we settled with 45 seconds for each user to express their opinions on different topics. It’s enough for people to express themselves, but not too long for the audience to get bored. It works for both the content creators and consumers. 

The logic “most Japanese tweets are 15 characters while most English tweets are 34” could be used to restrict the number of characters in Japanese rather than the other way round. It would keep the essence of Twitter as a platform in place.

Having said this, I am pretty sure there are smart folks at Twitter who would test this new thing more before deciding to officially make the change. There’s also a very high probability that I am wrong, but it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out for Twitter.

Let’s discuss

1. What do you think of Twitter’s move trying a 280-character limit?
2. What do you think will be the implications of longer tweets?
3. Are there other options Twitter could explore?