Way back in June, we gave you the sweet news that Twitter plans on removing the 140-character limit from its Direct Messages. Rejoice humanity, for the limit has finally been removed, forever.
The new limit set is 10,000 characters, which although not infinite, will be like so for seasoned Twitterati. It is also more than necessary for most conversations unless, of course, you’re writing a blogpost (though even then it is likely more than enough). While the change is later than it should’ve been (it was set to arrive in July), it is obviously better to be late than never.
Starting from today, the change will be rolled out to the hundreds of millions of users worldwide, using the social network on a wide range of platforms including iOS, Android, TweetDeck, Twitter for Mac and twitter.com. Be sure to update the app right away if you can’t wait to make full use of it.
Over the past few months, the DM has seen more and more features being added such as group and video messages. All of these steps will make Twitter more powerful, according to the product manager for DMs, Sachin Agarwal. Rather unlike Twitter was the pre-announcement of the news, which was to ensure that the change was implemented to every user and not just a select few at first.
It’s the No. 1 request we get from folks. They want to be able to say what’s on their mind and be themselves.
As we noted, while the limit gives you a bite-sized point-of-view in a a tweet, it is more or less useless in a direct message, where it is more of a nuisance in the way of a constructive conversation. More importantly, it will give Twitter a better chance to compete with services such as Whatsapp and Messenger, which as we know never had such a limit.
Error in title, the limit was 140 letters. Not 140 words.
Still the error exists 140 words, not 140 word :)