Twitter, world’s most popular micro-blogging portal and one of the leading social media networks with approximately 350 million active users, has made their biggest change ever.
They have just doubled the tweet length from 140 characters to 280 characters, and this is indeed a big deal.
Loyal users all over the globe are fuming over this decision, as it basically changes everything which Twitter was famous for.
We will soon share why this is a bad decision, but before that, here is why Twitter made this decision..
Tweet Size Double: The Logic Behind This Decision
Aliza Rozen, Product Manager at Twitter announced this decision via a blog post.
As per the logic presented (which is insane, illogical actually), she said often she finds herself limited to 140 characters while expressing an opinion, and this leads to editing the Tweet.
She said, “Sometimes, I have to remove a word that conveys an important meaning or emotion, or I don’t send my Tweet at all.”
Hence, to remove this so-called problem, Twitter has now decided to give more space to the users, and have doubled the tweet size to 280 characters.
The blog said, “We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming”
Japanese, Chinese, and Korean languages won’t be impacted by this change, as these languages have characters which can express a lot in short words.
The blog also shared some interesting facts: 9% of all English tweets hit the 140-character limit, but only 0.4% of Japanese tweets hit this limit.
This massive change has been implemented for few users as of now, but will be eventually rolled out to everyone, globally.
The blog post also shared few 280-character tweets, sent by Aliza herself.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also sent his first 280 character tweet, explaining the reason as well.
Why This Is Twitter’s Biggest Blunder Till Date?
Yes, that emotional connect with those 140 characters will be always there, but there is something more to it.
It’s the usability.
Twitter rose to fame, and became a popular hangout for journalists, celebrities, sportsmen and news readers because of the unique 140 character limit.
The user had to limit their opinions and words within those 140 characters, and this induced superb creativity as well.
The internet is like that huge ocean without any order, and Twitter’s 140 character limit forcefully induced that order within chaos; compelled the user to be creative, use the right words, and remove whatever there is unnecessary.
But not anymore.
With 280 characters, there isn’t much difference between Twitter and Facebook, and thus, Twitter loses that USP which made them so big in the first place.
And I am not alone here, describing Twitter’s decision as a blunder.
Twitter Users Revolt Against 280 Character Tweets!
Several loyal users and Twitter enthusiasts expressed their anger, sadness and dismay over this decision.
Product Hunt expressed this way:
Meanwhile Twitter CEO’s 280-character tweet also faced some extreme backlash, as these tweets emerged:
What is your opinion on this major decision by Twitter? Doubling Tweet length and good, bad or ugly?
Do let us know your opinions by commenting right here!