You're either kissing the ground or shaking your fist at the sky right about now. Twitter has dropped its 140 character limit on direct messages (DMs).
“You can now chat on (and on) in a single Direct Message, and likely still have some characters left over,” wrote Twitter product manager Sachin Agarwal in a blog post. It’s been one of the platform’s most popular requests.
Some, like Padmasaree Warrior, a strategic advisor and former CTO of Cisco, called the character limit expansion “another good move by Twitter.”
Others concur.
Great to see Twitter evolving messaging. Big opportunity "Removing the 140-character limit from Direct Messages" https://t.co/SscS4Ci44q
Customer service, community and product support managers are likely to agree since they will no longer be forced into writing tweet after tweet after tweet when they seek to resolve issues.
Up until now many of them have taken the more lengthy conversations offline and into email which is, needless to say, bad for Twitter. The messaging site needs you to stay on the platform where advertisers can catch your attention, like on Facebook.
Good for Twitter and Some Others, But You?
While this move might be good for Twitter, some Twitter users aren’t sure that it’s good for them.
“Twitter just unlocked essays of thirst,” wrote Complex magazine.
But not everyone is that thirsty.
@ComplexMag 140 characters is enough for my thirst level.
And Twitter purists hate the idea of any part of Twitter becoming a place where people can go on and on and on ….
Pushing the Limits
Like it or not, the lift of the 140-character limit — even if it’s only on DMs — turns Twitter into something else, which may be bad for purists, but for Twitter’s hurting business … time will tell.
The reason I like @twitter IS bc it's only 140 characters. 👍 If I wanted to read something long, I'd read a blog! 😃 #keep140#niche
The public part of Twitter, which is where most of us spend our time, will stick to the original character limit.
About the Author
Virginia Backaitis is seasoned journalist who has covered the workplace since 2008 and technology since 2002. She has written for publications such as The New York Post, Seeking Alpha, The Herald Sun, CMSWire, NewsBreak, RealClear Markets, RealClear Education, Digitizing Polaris, and Reworked among others. Connect with Virginia Backaitis:
