# Jailbreak! Time to Stretch Your Twitter Wings

- Link: https://chatterblast.com/blog/jailbreak-time-to-stretch-your-twitter-wings/
- Published: 2016-09-21T14:31:33-04:00
- Author: chatterblastteam

Listen up y’all. Let’s just get to it. **You can now tweet in (basically) more than
140 characters. **

You may have noticed yesterday, as [**The Verge reported**](http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/19/12973812/twitter-expanded-tweets-usernames-media-replies),
that Twitter has cut down on exactly which types of content will count toward its
signature 140-character composition limit. Images, GIFs, videos, polls, and quoted
tweets are now inherent to the tweet itself. What does this extra wiggle room mean
for users? It means more flexibility in composing that tweet to complain about the
election season or to get excited about #tacotuesday or something.

https://twitter.com/twitter/status/777915304261193728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Twitter [first announced](https://blog.twitter.com/express-even-more-in-140-characters)
that it was going to stop counting all those extra characters way back in May, but
never settled on a roll out date. Here is what they decided would change:

 * Replies: When replying, the @handle would no longer count towards the characters
 * Media attachments, aka GIFs galore
 * Retweet and Quote Tweeting
 * Say _“Adios”_ to .@-ing. #blessed

> *leaves twitter for 10 minutes and suddenly media doesn't count towards character
> limit* [pic.twitter.com/RRoI460TgF](https://t.co/RRoI460TgF)
> — Lars Gotrich 🍷🌊 (@totalvibration) [September 19, 2016](https://twitter.com/totalvibration/status/777924435336658947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

“_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_,”**
CEO ****Jack Dorsey** [told **_The Verge_** in May](http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/24/11755416/twitter-removes-140-characters-limit-photos-usernames).“
_I’m excited to see even more dialog because of this_.”

Twitter has previously teetered on extending the character limit but way back in
January, Dorsey praised the 140-character limit. It was originally implemented because
he wanted messages to be constructed and relayed just like an [SMS message](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Message_Service).
He never wanted to lose the creativity, speed, and brevity of that character limit;
Dorsey wanted to cut off #tweetstorms (think [**Kanye West**](http://twitter.com/kanyewest)).

[⌊3121c2c600000578-3444931-playing_defense_kanye_seems_to_have_reignited_his_feud_with_tayl-
a-15_1455320667585⌉⌊3121c2c600000578-3444931-playing_defense_kanye_seems_to_have_reignited_his_feud_with_tayl-
a-15_1455320667585⌉[

Dorsey and the whole Twitter gang believe this new update and approach will stay
true to that ever so concise feeling, all the while adding convenience and enhancing
the overall Twitter experience.  

So Twitter-verse, amp up that conversation. How are you going to take advantage 
of Twitter’s new character game? Let us know in the comments, [or over on, well, Twitter. ](http://twitter.com/chatterblast)