There have been spontaneous and surprising reactions to Twitter’s increase in the word limit, making it upto 4000 words. And netizens haven’t appreciated the Elon Musk-led social media company’s move.
“No way I am reading a 4,000-character tweet” Twitter users are reacting to the platform allowing a section of subscribers to send out giant-sized tweets.
Twitter has permitted that perk to the subscribers of Twitter Blue in the United States. The service costs $8 per month after monetising Twitter’s blue badge, followed by Musk’s acquisition.
The day when Twitter launched the 4,000-character update, thousands of users encountered trouble on the app. Several users could not tweet; others couldn’t follow accounts or send direct messages.
While Twitter soon responded that it was addressing the glitch, it also posted a lengthy tweet to announce the new feature. “Need more than 280 characters to express yourself? We know that lots of you do,” it said.
If a person or account you follow uses the feature, the tweet in your timeline will have a “show more” button to keep it from occupying your entire screen.
The new post format, which permits tweets more than 14 times longer than the current 280-character limit, isn’t surprising. Elon Musk has been suggesting plans to increase the tweet character limit to 4,000 for months. In response to a December 2022 tweet from @AllanObare4 asking, “Elon is it true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000?,” the billionaire responded, “Yes.”
Right now, there are a few limitations to the feature (besides that, it’s behind a paywall). If a tweet is over the standard 280 characters, you can’t save it as a draft or schedule it for later. Although most other standard features are likely to work as usual — one can add hashtags or pictures, and non-Blue subscribers will still be able to interact with such lengthy posts as normal.
Blue subscribers will get the ability to quote, retweet and reply with 4,000 characters.
