Twitter will reportedly roll out new changes with their 140-character limit feature. Apparently, social media platform may give users more freedom in composing longer messages.
A source told Bloomberg that Twitter will soon stop including photos and links in the 140-character limit for messages. Moreover, the update is expected to roll out in the next two weeks. Twitter has not made any official announcement on the report.
Currently, links take up 23 characters, even when it automatically gets shortened. Photos take up about 24 characters.
It was noted that, in January, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey revealed that the company was searching for new ways to display text on the app. It was also said that their experiments would be based on how people use the service.
According to Fortune, the shortening of URLs are done in order to protect users from "malicious sites that engage in spreading malware, phishing attacks, and other harmful activity." Links are checked against a list of potentially dangerous sites, from which users are warned.
Twitter's link service also collects information on how many times a URL has been clicked. This is used for its analytics.
The publication added that Bloomberg's report is the latest rumor surrounding Twitter and its character limit. A report by Re/code earlier this year said that Twitter will be expanding its 140-character limit to 10,000 characters.
Dorsey debunked the rumors. "It's staying. It's a good constraint for us and it allows for of-the-moment brevity," he said on the "Today Show."
"We're not going to be shy about building more utility and power into Twitter for people," Dorsey tweeted in January. "As long as it's consistent with what people want to do, we're going to explore it."
The Verge noted that the change may seem subtle since it may only impact journalists and brands. It does acknowledge that any modifications on the social media platform would bring a significant shift - one that may or may not click with its millions of users.
