Twitter is going beyond 140-character tweets at last

It's been on the cards for a while and now Twitter has made moves to ditch the 140-character limit it's been known for. It's not quite opening the floodgates yet, but you will be able to say more than ever before.

If you @reply someone, that's no longer going to count towards the limit (though @mentions in original tweets will). In theory, that should make it easier to keep conversations going on the platform, even as more people jump in.

Pictures, videos, polls and other types of attachment don't count any more either, although this only applies to media uploaded directly through Twitter (so a link to Instagram is still going to use up characters).

Twittering on

Another change is the ability to retweet yourself. "You can easily retweet or quote tweet yourself when you want to share a new reflection or feel like a really good one went unnoticed," explains Twitter.

Finally, starting a tweet with a @username will no longer keep it out of everyone else's timeline - everyone who follows you will see it, so the convention of starting tweets with a period then a username isn't necessary any more.

Twitter says these changes are rolling out over the coming months, and company execs will be hoping it helps boost the rather disappointing growth it's seen in user numbers in recent years.

• Read more about the Twitter algorithm introduced earlier this year

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