Rumor: Twitter to remove 140-character limit before the end of March

Twitter plans to remove the 140-character limit for tweets before the end of March. The 140 character limit is the most characteristic part of the messaging service. The timeline should nevertheless remain the same for users.

Twitter would consider still showing 140 characters and then allowing users to expand a tweet via a button, so that they can see the rest of the tweet. In this way, longer tweets are possible without users having to scroll far to pass a long tweet, Recode reports based on several anonymous sources. The limit would be ten thousand characters, something that is already possible in DMs.

There are still several problems that Twitter foresees. This would make it possible to mention many more people in a tweet, which makes more spam possible. Also, the design of how long tweets should look like is not yet ready.

The 140 character limitation has been in Twitter from the start and is one of the most distinctive and signature elements of the social medium. It is unknown what Twitter thinks it will achieve by enabling longer tweets.

Update, 23:07: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has a tweet which is a clear indication that the 140 character limit will disappear.