Twitter is back in the good idea business. After a series of scares regarding the rumored expansion of its coveted 140-character tweet limit, Twitter is reportedly planning to update that limit in a non-trash way by no longer including photos and links in the total count. The rumored update, revealed to Bloomberg Monday by an anonymous source, is expected to roll out within the next two weeks.
Even after Twitter automatically shortens links for users, they still take up a whopping 23 characters. This update to the 140-character limit, though still just a rumor at this point, marks a fitting way for the platform to expand users' ability to express and share ideas without totally abandoning what makes Twitter unique: its detail-oriented approach to simplicity. When asked by Complex to confirm or deny this rumored update, Twitter declined to comment.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, speaking to Complex earlier this month about his new search engine Jelly, insisted the platform's main goal was always to make human connection as easy as possible. "Twitter is a shining example of self-organization and the ability for many individuals to come together and be one super-organism for a moment and then go back to being many individuals again," Stone said.
However, the company briefly gave everyone digital nightmares in January when a swath of rumors suggested the decade-old platform was considering a preposterous 10,000-character limit instead. The universe promptly heard the anguished cries of an entire civilization, meaning that shit (thankfully) never came to pass. But this whole free links, free photos update? Pretty sure everyone is down for that.
