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The history of Twitter messing with its character count, in under 280 characters

Longer tweets were always coming. Eventually.

By Aja Romano
Cyber Security Concerns In The Global Wake of Hacking Threat Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images
Aja Romano writes about pop culture, media, and ethics. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot. A 2019 fellow of the National Critics Institute, they’re considered an authority on fandom, the internet, and the culture wars.

’06: Twitter debuts w/140-char limit

’06–’11: You can lengthen tweets, but why tho

’12–’15: Tweets are longer! Psych. Then sometimes 117 chars. Then 140 again. DM limit gone; tweets next?

’16–mid-’17: We’re doing it! But not. Still no.

NOW: Freak out or nah?

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