- Twitter is set to introduce “longer” long form tweets, with a character limit of up to 10,000 characters.
- Elon Musk and others are looking to incorporate more long-form content into the app to keep users engaged and eventually provide new avenues for creator monetization.
- It remains to be seen whether Twitter’s expansion of long-form content will be embraced by creators and users or if it goes against the app’s reputation as a leader in short-form content.
Are you among the Twitter users who have noticed long form tweets hidden behind the ‘Show more’ indicator in your Twitter feed? According to Elon Musk, it appears that even longer tweets, up to 10,000 characters, will be coming soon to the app.
Currently, Twitter Blue subscribers have access to long form tweets that can be up to 4,000 characters in length, which were released early last month. It’s worth noting that Twitter itself did not post any longer tweets to highlight this functionality, but the 300,000 users who pay for Twitter Blue are now able to use longer tweets to share more extensive content within the app.
Soon, these longer tweets will expand even further, with Blue subscribers having the ability to post massive reams of text as tweets.
Although long form tweets may seem out of place on Twitter, Elon Musk and others are looking to incorporate more long form tweets into the app to keep users engaged and eventually provide new avenues for creator monetization.
By increasing the amount of time users spend watching videos or reading longer tweets, Twitter can insert ads and share revenue with creators.
While this vision is still a ways off, it represents a long-term goal for long form tweets in the app, with long tweets being just one part of an expanded Twitter ecosystem that will eliminate the need for creators to redirect their audiences to other platforms to view their content.
Will Twitter users like long form tweets?
The question that arises is whether creators and users actually desire this expansion of long form tweets on Twitter. Twitter has built its reputation as the leader in short-form content, a place where users can access quick, bite-sized updates on the latest events and happenings.
Being good at Twitter involves an artful use of brevity, and expanding the length of tweets could potentially go against that. However, when Twitter expanded the character limit from 140 to 280 in 2017, it faced a significant backlash, yet usage data has since shown that people enjoy having more characters to work with. So while the move may seem counter-intuitive, there is a possibility that more people will find value in posting longer content within tweets, leading to the emergence of new use cases and options.
Fortunately, if users prefer to stick with shorter messages, there is no obligation to post longer missives. As such, rolling out longer tweets is probably a safe and straightforward bet for Twitter to make, even if 10k character tweets may look strange at first glance. Regardless, the rollout of longer tweets is happening, driven by Musk’s desire to facilitate expanded engagement on the app.
Brace yourselves for long form tweets that take up your entire timeline. Twitter may change its UI to resemble its ‘Notes’ long form option that it was testing last year, which was discontinued as part of Musk’s takeover. However, perhaps reusing this format to display longer posts in the app makes more sense at 10k characters. Regardless, we will soon find out since Elon has confirmed that 10k tweets are coming soon.
This is an example of how long form tweets will look like:
On Pausing Alcohol
"Always carry a flask of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore always carry a small snake." — W. C. Fields
About six months ago, I stopped drinking alcohol. I feel much better, and I’m mad as hell about it.
I never really drank through my 20s and… https://t.co/MMfy8IF4vD
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) March 1, 2023
