Twitter has always stood out thanks to the character limit for a post. But more and more, the microblogging platform is interested in the long format. And obviously, Twitter is preparing to blow up this limit by allowing users to publish “articles”.
This is indicated by a tweet from reverse engineering specialist Jane Wong. By digging into the code of the Twitter application, it discovered that the platform develops a format called “Twitter Articles”. And apparently, when this feature rolls out, anyone will be able to use this one (but not just public figures).
Twitter is working on “Twitter Articles” and the ability to create one within Twitter
Possibility a new longform format on Twitter pic.twitter.com/Srk3E6R5sz
—Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 2, 2022
At the moment, we don’t have all the details. For example, it’s unclear if Twitter is planning a way to monetize these articles. And we don’t know if the platform will deploy the feature for all users, or only for users of the paid Twitter Blue subscription (which gives access to some exclusive features). For example, the functionality of Twitter which allows the use of NFT as profile picture is currently only available to Twitter Blue subscribers.
Note that Twitter has already confirmed the existence of this feature under development. And the platform indicates that it will give more info soon.
Twitter wants its users to be more talkative
As a reminder, if the tweets were limited to only 140 characters, it is because the platform was launched at a time when people communicated mainly by SMS. And the 140-character limit was imposed so that a tweet could fit in a text message.
Today, these technical constraints no longer exist, but Twitter has always kept this legacy from the days of SMS. However, the 140 character limit has been increased to 280, and certain elements of the tweet are no longer counted.
On the other hand, Twitter has launched a feature that facilitates the creation and reading of threads, these sets of tweets that twittos use for texts that require more than 280 characters.
Finally, remember that Twitter is also interested in newsletters. There is one, the company made acquisition de Revue, a competitor of Bluestack that allows Internet users to publish and monetize their newsletters. After the acquisition, Twitter began working on integrating this tool into its social network.
In any case, if Twitter launches the articles, it will go from a microblogging platform to a classic blogging platform. It should also be remembered that its competitor Facebook has been offering an article format for years on which users can publish real blog posts, with formatting options as well as media integration. Could Twitter launch something similar?
With this “articles” format, Twitter will break the character limit