Elon Musk confirmed through a series of tweets today that a series of updates will be coming to Twitter starting next month. One of which being the ability to share long form posts with a higher limit of 4,000 words, which exceeds the platform’s current limitation of allowing just 280 characters per tweet.
News of the feature’s potential arrival next month was first brought to light by Pop Base, which later stirred debate between Twitter users regarding how it will be implemented. Clearing the air, Musk intervened by replying to a tweet by user Noam Blum, explaining that the feature will share the same Timeline screen space as regular postings. He also clarified that instead of following the Twitlonger approach where users are directed to an external site to view the entire post, the new 4,000 character function will allow users to see them directly on the platform by clicking “read more” at the end of each tweet.
Yes, these will get the same Timeline screen space as other tweets, but you will be able to click for more
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 9, 2023
As you may recall, Musk initially promised to introduce the feature not long after becoming CEO of Twitter, a role which he gained after acquiring the social media giant in late October 2022. Additionally, it’s worth noting that engineer Jane Manchun Wong reported early last year that the company itself apparently had also mulled on implementing something similar in the form of Articles, which never came to be. Twitter also tested a new Notes feature that lets users share posts that can go up to 2,500 words in June, but this too never saw a full implementation.
Easy swipe right/left to move between recommended vs followed tweets rolls out later this week.
First part of a much larger UI overhaul.
Bookmark button (de facto silent like) on Tweet details rolls out a week later.
Long form tweets early Feb.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2023
Besides 4,000 character-long tweets, the billionaire also revealed that formatting features such as bolding and underlining text, as well as changing its font sizes will eventually be rolled out later this quarter. He adds that these rollouts are the first part of a much larger UI overhaul, with the first to arrive being the ability to easily swipe right or left to move between recommended or followed tweets, which is slated to be implemented later this week. This will then followed by a new Bookmark button that’s planned to be released a week after.
(Source: Elon Musk, via Twitter [1] [2] [3])
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