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Periscope Bloomberg Twitter

Twitter set to stop counting photos and links as part of 140-character limit

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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

May 16, 2016 | 2 min read

Twitter is set to stop counting photos and links as part of a tweet’s 140-character limit, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.

twitter

The person said that the change could happen in the next two weeks. Since links and photos each take up about 23 characters, the change would allow Twitter users to utilize all 140 characters for text.

Twitter has since confirmed the move, noting that all attachments, links and mentions will now be disqualified from the character count.

The news comes as Twitter continues to experiment with ways to keep the social platform relevant in the face of competition and stagnant user growth. Earlier this year, Twitter considered extending its 140-character limit to 10,000.

Last year, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the social media platform as CEO after Dick Costolo stepped down. Since then, he has been tasked with breathing new life into Twitter, but has struggled to do so.

While the company has bet big on live-streaming with its video-streaming app Periscope, it is now facing mounting competition from Facebook’s live video capabilities.

Periscope Bloomberg Twitter

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