Twitter will show tweets that start with mentions to all followers

Soon there will be no need to use the .@ method to unhide mentions. Furthermore, the messaging service will no longer count things such as mentions, links, images and videos against the character limit.

To send out a visible tweet starting with a mention to another tweet, currently a dot must be placed before the @. Twitter announces indicates that that .@ convention will no longer be necessary and that the first tweet of a conversation that starts with a mention will be shown to all followers. That does not apply to the replies that follow. To still share answers with all followers, Twitter suggests using the retweet button.

Furthermore, the social network announces that @mentions and the characters added to a message when using an image, video or poll will no longer count towards the character limit of 140 characters. While Twitter is sticking to the limit, users will be able to use it more effectively after the changes. For example, the change produces a lot of extra characters when answering a large group of users.

It is not clear when Twitter will make the changes effective. The title of the blog post is called ‘coming soon’ and in the text the service writes that the changes will be available ‘in the coming months’.