Twitter Expands to 280 Characters

President Donald Trump will be able to put more context into what have become his most-watched public statements.

That is because Twitter has decided to expand to 280 characters.

The rollout, happening this week, came after a successful test of doubling the character limit.

"In September, we launched a test that expanded the 140 character limit so every person around the world could express themselves easily in a Tweet," blogged Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen. "Our goal was to make this possible while ensuring we keep the speed and brevity that makes Twitter, Twitter. Looking at all the data, we’re excited to share we’ve achieved this goal and are rolling the change out to all languages where cramming was an issue.*

Rosen said the move would cut down on time spent editing, and even abandoning Tweets.

"This shows that more space makes it easier for people to fit thoughts in a Tweet, so they could say what they want to say, and send Tweets faster than before," said Rosen.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.