Twitter mulls ditching 140-character limit on tweets
Twitter Inc. is contemplating whether to allow users to tweet more than 140 characters at a time, a debate that challenges one of the fundamental features of the social media service.
Interim CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey is spearheading a project code-named “140 Plus,” which is looking at different ways users can extend its signature 140-character limit, according to people familiar with the matter. The final version isn’t set. There has been ongoing debate at the company about what to do about the limit, a feature unique to Twitter TWTR, +1.31% that has created its own lingo and quirky style of brevity but has had its obvious constraints. Users have come up with workarounds to the character limitation by attaching screenshots of longer text or by linking tweets together in a so-called “tweetstorm.”
One of the main issues the company is grappling with is by how much it should extend the limit and how that should look, a decision that could alter the basic Twitter experience, these people said. One camp is in favor of simply increasing it by 10 or so characters, while another camp would rather take the time to devote resources to building a rich publishing platform that could perhaps be monetized one day. What that platform would look like is unclear.
Much of this debate is happening in the midst of a transition on the product team. Jeff Seibert, who earlier this month was put in charge of Twitter’s consumer products, is working to alter the process in which product features are being developed, according to one of the people. Rather than piecemeal tests that lead to incremental product launches, Twitter is committing time and resources for changes that are in line with a broader vision. A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment.
Dorsey, who is the leading candidate to become the permanent CEO at Twitter even as he maintains his chief executive role at Square Inc., has been pushing the company to rethink fundamental components about the social media service as it tries to jump-start sagging user growth.
Source: MarketWatch
