Twitter Encourages Conversation With Big Changes To Replies

Twitter has always been built on the idea that brevity is the soul of wit. But, it can still be hard to fit everything you need to say in just 140 characters, especially if you’re responding to someone with a long username.

Until now, user names were included in YouTube’s character limit. That is no longer the case as of this week. Twitter announced that usernames won’t subtract from your tweet’s 140 character count from now on.

We're changing replies so that you have all 140 characters to express yourself.

Learn more: https://t.co/PNWGilbmVd pic.twitter.com/cxBJohZc2Q

— Twitter (@Twitter) March 30, 2017

Additionally, the company is changing up how replies appear to make conversations easier to follow with three new features:

• Who you are replying to will appear above the Tweet text rather than within the Tweet text itself, so you have more characters to have conversations.
• You can tap on “Replying to…” to easily see and control who’s part of your conversation.
• When reading a conversation, you’ll actually see what people are saying, rather than seeing lots of @usernames at the start of a Tweet.

“It’s now easier to follow a conversation, so you can focus on what a discussion is about, and who is having it,” Twitter explained in a blog post. “Also, with all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations.

The new changes should be available to all users across PC, iOS, and Android already. According to the company’s testing, Twitter says the new features lead to higher engagement for conversations.