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Some Twitter Users Can Post 4,000-Character Tweets Now

Twitter Blue subscribers in the US are no longer limited to 280 characters.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer
Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.
Expertise I've been writing about social media since 2015 but have previously covered politics, crime and education. I also have a degree in studio art. Credentials
  • 2022 Eddie award for consumer analysis
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Queenie Wong
2 min read
Phone screen filled with Twitter icons

Twitter has been trying to make more money from its subscription service. 

 James Martin/CNET

Twitter, known for its short messages, is embracing longer -- much, much longer -- tweets.

On Wednesday, the company said that people in the US who pay for its Twitter Blue monthly subscription service will be able to post tweets up to 4,000 characters. 

Twitter currently has a limit of 280 characters. From Twitter's 2006 founding until 2017, the cap was 140 characters.

"While we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that," the official @TwitterBlue account said as part of a lengthy tweet.

The @Twitter account summed it up nicely, repeating "more words" over 70 times.  

The new feature has sparked criticism from some who say it's poorly designed.

"Current implementation of long tweets is terrible. Looks like hot garbage to read. Some improved formatting could go a long way," @WholeMarsBlog tweeted.

"Yeah, the format is terrible. Update early next week," CEO Elon Musk replied Friday.

Twitter users will still see tweets capped at 280-characters on their timelines but can tap "Show More" to read the longer tweet. Users will also be able to reply, quote tweet and retweet a 4,000-character tweet.  

The change is meant to entice people to subscribe to Twitter Blue after some advertisers paused spending on the platform following Musk's takeover of the company in late October. Twitter charges $11 per month for its subscription service on Apple devices and $8 per month on the web. The Information reported this week that Twitter has roughly 180,000 subscribers in the US, a sign that the company faces an uphill battle as it tries to make more money from subscription fees.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder and former CEO, said in 2017 that Twitter's initial tweet limit of 140 characters was "arbitrary" and based on the limit for short messaging service texts. Twitter users have long found ways to work around the character limits such as posting screenshots and threading messages. 

Twitter Blue other features include the ability to edit tweets and get a verified blue checkmark. The company paused the rollout of an updated subscription service in November after fake accounts that subscribed to Twitter Blue impersonated major brands.