Twitter has announced that, as of now, media extras such as photos, GIFs, and videos — along with quoted tweets and user polls — will no longer contribute to the 140-character limit per tweet.
While the change will no doubt be welcomed by users, it makes up only part of the improvement's Twitter promised would be forthcoming in May.
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Twitter turns ten, are investors turning off?
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Excluded from today's update was the removal of counting usernames in a reply or mention toward the 140-character limit. A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is currently testing this feature and will be introducing it to a small group of users in the coming weeks before rolling it out to everyone. She did not confirm a specific date for the update.
In its May blog entry, Twitter said the new features would help users "do even more" with their tweets. "We're exploring ways to make existing uses easier and enable new ones, all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections, and conversations," the blog post states.
In a demonstration video for how the replies function will soon look, "@username" is replaced with a thread line that shows different tweets in a conversation. The names of users involved in the conversation are displayed above the tweet after the text "replying to."
Another feature in the May blog post missing from Monday's rollout was the update that would make all replies appear on a user's feed, making it unnecessary to use ".@" when trying to display replies to a user's audience. Twitter did not confirm if this feature is being tested or when users can expect it in the future.
The Washington Post
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