Twitter to enable longer posts by disregarding links and photos in 140-character limit

Couldn't they just increase the character limit to 160 or 180?

Twitter will enable users to post longer tweets by stopping counting links and photos towards its rigid 140-character limit. The move is the culmination of a number of efforts to reinvigorate growth and interest in Twitter since co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company as CEO.

However, the move may also encourage more spamming and clog up people's already overloaded Twitter feeds with strings of links and images.

The change has been revealed by newswire Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources who suggested that the move would be unveiled in about two weeks.

The move looks like it will go down well with regular users, who have often moaned that links and photos unnecessarily take up too many characters, detracting from the elegance of their online arguments. For example, even shortened links use 23 characters of the already limited 140 count.

Twitter has not commented on the rumours, but the change would make sense for the company to find ways to increase engagement and make it easier to understand for new users. The change could also be used by advertisers.

Ensuring that the addition of extra content - such as links or images - does not affect message space may make it easier for people to share and say what they want, while not confusing new users who may otherwise be put off when they find that an attempt to share pictures or links eats into the limited character count.

Dorsey has already taken some bold moves since taking over as CEO, including cutting 336 jobs. The company has struggled to grow financially in recent years, while rival Facebook has stormed ahead, mainly by raking in mobile advertising revenue. Twitter is relatively limited, in contrast, in terms of its scope for increasing advertising.