Twitter finally relaxes its 140-character limit

Media attachments like images and videos will no longer cut into the character count in tweets.

The micro-blogging site Twitter has announced key changes in its famous 140-character limit rule. The company has now redefined the types of content that will use up this limit in each tweet.

Say more about what's happening! Rolling out now: photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count toward your 140 characters. pic.twitter.com/I9pUC0NdZC

— Twitter (@twitter) September 19, 2016

Twitter has said that media attachments (such as photos, GIFs, videos, and polls) and '@names' in reply tweets and quoted tweets will no longer be counted within the 140 characters that make up a tweet.

Twitter, with over 300 million users, first announced this update in May 2016, but didn't confirm when the changes would finally reach its users. The company has now announced that the update has been globally rolled out, though there is no confirmation yet on when this policy update would reach India.

In May, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was quoted by the media network The Verge, saying, "This is the most notable change we've made in recent times around conversation in particular, and around giving people the full expressiveness of the 140 characters. I'm excited to see even more dialogue because of this."

Experts see this development, one that comes 10 years after Twitter's launch, as a move that allows users to engage in more free-flowing discussions, as well as encourage more visual content on the platform.

Commenting on the impact this development can have on brand communication, Pooja Jauhari, chief executive officer, The Glitch, says, "It now allows brands to be storytellers than just have a newsflash approach to Twitter. This will definitely push creativity, and we will be rethinking our Twitter strategy."