In a blog post, Twitter said the expanded character limit would allow for easier expression while retaining the brevity for which the service is known. With the previous limit in place, 9 percent of tweets hit 140 characters. But during the test of expanded tweets, only 1 percent of tweets hit 280 characters, Twitter said. “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,” the company said in a blog post.

At the same time, expanding the character limit risks disrupting the fast-moving, real-time nature of the site, encouraging people users to post more expansive paragraphs where they once might just have posted a few words and a link.

But most people who had 280 characters during the test period didn’t use the added real estate, Twitter said. Only 5 percent of tweets sent during the test period exceeded 140 characters, the company said, and just 2 percent exceeded 190 characters. “Your timeline reading experience should not substantially change,” Twitter said. “You’ll still see about the same amount of tweets in your timeline.”

Article from: The Verge

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