Musk confirms Twitter character limit to be increased to 4000: But do you need it? | Digit

More than character limit, what’s important is how digestible the content is. So, while Elon Musk confirms the character limit of tweets is going to be increased to 4000, we wonder is it really necessary?

Currently, the character limit for tweets on Twitter is 280. So, in a single tweet, you can enter up to 280 characters which includes punctuations and spaces. This wasn’t always the case. There was a time when we used to have only 140 characters to express our thoughts on the platform. Then in 2017, it was bumped to 280 characters. And now, Elon Musk is planning to increase it significantly. He has confirmed the same to a user’s query on Twitter:

Yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022

He hasn’t given any justification or reasoning for such an update. So, let’s wear the thinking hat and try to understand if Twitter needs such an increase in character limit.

Here’s what we think:

Twitter character limit increase: Does it make sense?

An increase in character limit for tweets is something we have already seen as already mentioned above. The reason for such a change is simple as it gives more space for the Twitter user to express themselves. This increases the time they spent on the platform and the chances of a rise in their engagement is also there. So, in turn, it makes Twitter more user-friendly and attractive for both users and marketers. 

However long form content, especially text, won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Due to a declining attention span for most people, the posts may not garner as many readers as shorter 280-character tweets. Twitter accounts which undergo this may be badly hit by the algorithm too. Not only that, the longer content need not mean quality content as they may be less-focussed in their delivery and hence less legible for the other person.

So, there are both pros and cons to such an update. In any case, what matters is that the content should be digestible. Also, 4000 characters is the limit and you can always post shorter tweets. You could plan how often you post long-form tweets versus short ones. And only time will tell how this update performs, if at all it happens.

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