Microblogging site Twitter is buzzing with a rumour that could change the entire face and character of this web platform.
Twitter, the rumours say, is planning to increase the per tweet word limit to 10,000 characters from its 140 character limit. The speculation, naturally, has spawned a horrified reaction amongst the die-hard twitterati.
The source of the rumours seems to be Re/code — a technology news and analysis website, which reported that Twitter is set to bring in an important change by the end of March 2016, most likely called the ‘Beyond 140’ project. The news immediately spawned more rumours that the project would see Tweet character-limits being changed to an almost unbelievable 10,000 characters per tweet. Of course, it didn’t help that Twitter changed its direct message (DM) limit to 10,000 characters in June last year.
Twitterati in Chennai say it would destroy the character of this social media platform. ‘Twitter just would not be Twitter anymore’, seems to be the consensus.
“I feel that it shouldn’t be implemented. The 10k characters take the essence out of Twitter. It is known for its way of keeping stuff short and crisp. If they change it to 10k characters, it will become another Facebook with lot of hashtags. Twitter kept it limited by allowing you to direct your tweet to specific people,” says Aravind M, IIT-Madras student.
While the project seems to only exist in the realm of pure speculation, Twitter fans are still scared. “Twitter is bound to face an identity crisis if it goes ahead with such a change. It would effectively be making it ‘a la Facebook’. It would lose its most crucial identity — the 140-character limit,” said Mohandas, an advocate.
But those more tuned into the possible reasons behind the rumoured change, say that this would be a natural evolution for Twitter. “This is a logical step that Twitter is taking towards a mass market media. The 140-character limit is often intimidating to new users and this is part of a long term evolution. The word limit extension is just like the earlier changes from text to photos, and then videos being added to tweets over the years,” said Kiruba Shankar, social media commentator.
“It might be uncomfortable for purists, but in due course it will be a win-win situation for both Twitter as a company and its users,” he added.
Other people are adamant that taking the limit to 10,000 characters is an over-reaction. “A realistic target would be increasing it by a maximum of 50 to 100 words. This 10k increase is the last thing any Twitterati would want,” adds Aravind.
There are reports that one of the reasons Twitter is mulling the move is to make sure the content hosted in a tweet can be hosted within Twitter itself. In the current scheme of things, if users want to express opinions or share something with heavy content, they use abbreviated links that redirect to other sites, increasing page views there.
Twitter folks are waiting with bated breath for March-end. For, what follows this could either end forever or re-invent their love affair with one of the most popular microblogging sites.