Twitter is going beyond 140-character tweets at last

Twitter logo
Changes are coming to Twitter.

It's been on the cards for a while and now Twitter has made moves to ditch the 140-character limit it's been known for. It's not quite opening the floodgates yet, but you will be able to say more than ever before.

If you @reply someone, that's no longer going to count towards the limit (though @mentions in original tweets will). In theory, that should make it easier to keep conversations going on the platform, even as more people jump in.

Pictures, videos, polls and other types of attachment don't count any more either, although this only applies to media uploaded directly through Twitter (so a link to Instagram is still going to use up characters).

Twittering on

Another change is the ability to retweet yourself. "You can easily retweet or quote tweet yourself when you want to share a new reflection or feel like a really good one went unnoticed," explains Twitter.

Finally, starting a tweet with a @username will no longer keep it out of everyone else's timeline - everyone who follows you will see it, so the convention of starting tweets with a period then a username isn't necessary any more.

Twitter says these changes are rolling out over the coming months, and company execs will be hoping it helps boost the rather disappointing growth it's seen in user numbers in recent years.

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David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.