Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey hints at longer tweets

By Alexei Oreskovic

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey just hinted at what could become a new format for lengthy tweets and explained his thinking for potentially lifting the company’s trademark 140-character limit.
Dorsey said that Twitter didn’t initially have the 140-character limit and noted that the company would not shy away from adding more “utility and power” into the service when necessary. While Dorsey didn’t explicitly say that Twitter would get rid of the 140-character limit, he strongly suggested that such a move was in the works.

His comments appeared in a lengthy 10-paragraph tweet that goes well beyond the regular character limit. But the tweet was merely a screenshot image of text rather than an early demonstration of a new long-tweet feature within Twitter.

“If we decided to ship what we explore we’re telling developers well in advance so they can prepare accordingly,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey’s comments come after a report in Recode Tuesday morning that Twitter was considering creating a new 10,000 character limit on the service. That change would presumably make it easier for people to express themselves on Twitter, potentially helping Twitter reignite flagging user growth and respond to criticisms that the service is too difficult for mainstream users.

But the reports of the character-limit change quickly proved controversial, with many Twitter users complaining that ditching the character limit would ruin Twitter’s unique aspect. Twitter’s stock is down roughly 60% from its 52-week high amid worries that the service may have peaked and won’t grow beyond its loyal following. In his comments, Dorsey said that the short, rapid-fire conversations that occur on Twitter are an inherent and essential part of the service.

But he noted that many people today are forced to take screenshots of text when they want to write something longer than 140-characters.