Twitter has decided to test out the use of a 280-character allowance for Tweets, doubling the 140 characters users are familiar with. The change has been introduced to give users the chance to express more meaning and emotion into their tweets.

The research was performed by Twitter that discovered that the limited character allowance was a cause of frustration. Those tweeting in English, Portuguese, French and Spanish were unable to express themselves in the permitted characters. Others tweeting in languages such as Japanese, Korean and Chinese didn’t feel the same frustration. This is because they’re able to include an adequate amount of information using the 140 characters.

Fewer Constraints Result in More Tweets

Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen said that they noticed that people tweet more when they don’t need to cram their thoughts into the 140 characters. People like to have spare characters and as a result, they are more likely to tweet. However, Rosen is fully aware that many users are emotionally attached to the 140-character limit. She said that the team felt the same attachment but once they tried the new 280 characters they soon fell in love with it.

The 280-character limit is currently available for a small subset of the 328 million users of Twitter. After testing, Twitter will decide whether they will release the feature to everyone. Many Twitter users are complaining, vocalising the need for Twitter to concentrate their efforts in other places, such as permitting editing and clamping down on white nationalists on the social network.

What do you think of the additional characters? Will you be using them to communicate with your audience?