The social media website Twitter has announced major updates to its service.
Some changes will make it easier to add words and images to a tweet. Other changes will affect how tweets can be sent and who will see them.
Change in How Characters Are Counted
Twitter permits only 140 characters in a tweet, including letters, numbers, web addresses, images, spaces, and #hashtags. The limit on characters can make it difficult to say something meaningful.
The company is changing the way that characters are counted.
Twitter will no longer count the following as characters in tweets:
So when these are used in a tweet, they will not be counted against the 140-character limit. This is great news for those who want to have more space to share their thoughts on Twitter.
Web Addresses
Web addresses, also known as URLs, will no longer be included in the character count. This change is very important, and not just because it gives users more words per tweet.
Web addresses can take up a lot of characters so some websites use a shortened web address in tweets.
For example, two web addresses can open the Voice of America Learning English article "Travel Apps Offer Direction, Fun."