Twitter has been known for its brevity thanks to its 140 character limitation on a post. It has made its 316 million active users find ways to express themselves in the least amount of words as possible. This effect has been so profound, you always find yourself not standing long posts you find on other networks like Facebook or Instagram. This however has its own limits in that there are people who would want to read more on a specific news item and are always forced to visit another platform to get more details.
But, it seems the company is about to change this unique aspect of the network as Recode reportsthe company is planning to release a product that will allow users to go beyond the iconic 140 character rule. According to those sources, it will allow users to post longer content, which means it might be a proper blogging arm of Twitter. Apparently, Twitter’s interim CEO and co-founder, Jack Dorsey supports the idea and this can be seen as one of his strategic moves to position the company competitively in the battle for being the best choice for reading news in the social media landscape.
It can also be seen as a way to counteract Facebook’s Instant Articles where they would want to convince publishers to post their content on Twitter so that interested readers would not see the need to leave the app. Twitter is an excellent platform to get breaking news and this may encourage people to view Twitter as the only source for breaking news. One way they have been able to remedy this is by opening web links within the mobile Twitter app instead of it being opened on the typical browser.
Recently, Twitter extended the character limit for the DM which made a lot of sense because it now allows people to have longer conversations after a previous connection on the regular timeline. If Twitter were to announce a platform for users to write more, they could borrow the minimalistic UI you find on Medium, just like how Facebook did it with Notes.
