Blog & Company News
Jul 7, 2015
Twitter Changes Its Game Plan
When Twitter first launched, it was mainly used as a place to simply share what’s on your mind and follow those of your interest to see what’s on theirs. After many years of evolving into one of the largest social media platforms, Twitter has decided to make some drastic changes.
Just last month, Twitter announced a historical change for users: July would mark the transition from the notorious 140 character limit to 10,000 characters! However, this change applies only to direct messages, as they are more private and personal, and not meant to be a quick, to-the-point message. Unfortunately, public tweets remain constrained and will continue to do so. As reported on C|Net, “with growing competition from other social networks and message apps, like Facebook and WhatsApp, Twitter is looking to keep up and make messaging a bigger deal.” This is just one of the many steps being taken by Twitter to become a relevant platform for user-to-user instant messaging.
Earlier this year, Twitter revealed new capabilities to allow group messaging. They’ve also opened the tweet-gates for user's messages, allowing interaction between any users, private or not. Before this update, users had to "follow" a person in order to send them a message. Yahoo! pointed out that, “It’ll also be a huge help to companies that run customer service on Twitter,” as anyone can now initiate a DM and have the capability of sending a longer, more detailed message.
Additionally, Twitter has taken the initiative of allowing users to publicize their “block” lists. A block list forbids the blocked user from seeing the tweets and profiles of those who have blocked him or her. Twitter shared that, “it’s allowing users to share block lists to make using the service safer for people in your community facing similar issues such as harassment or bullying.” Having the ability to share your list allows other users to import it and automatically block the multiple accounts instantly and all at once.
When Twitter first launched, it was mainly used as a place to simply share what’s on your mind and follow those of your interest to see what’s on theirs. After many years of evolving into one of the largest social media platforms, Twitter has decided to make some drastic changes.
Just last month, Twitter announced a historical change for users: July would mark the transition from the notorious 140 character limit to 10,000 characters! However, this change applies only to direct messages, as they are more private and personal, and not meant to be a quick, to-the-point message. Unfortunately, public tweets remain constrained and will continue to do so. As reported on C|Net, “with growing competition from other social networks and message apps, like Facebook and WhatsApp, Twitter is looking to keep up and make messaging a bigger deal.” This is just one of the many steps being taken by Twitter to become a relevant platform for user-to-user instant messaging.
Earlier this year, Twitter revealed new capabilities to allow group messaging. They’ve also opened the tweet-gates for user's messages, allowing interaction between any users, private or not. Before this update, users had to "follow" a person in order to send them a message. Yahoo! pointed out that, “It’ll also be a huge help to companies that run customer service on Twitter,” as anyone can now initiate a DM and have the capability of sending a longer, more detailed message.
Additionally, Twitter has taken the initiative of allowing users to publicize their “block” lists. A block list forbids the blocked user from seeing the tweets and profiles of those who have blocked him or her. Twitter shared that, “it’s allowing users to share block lists to make using the service safer for people in your community facing similar issues such as harassment or bullying.” Having the ability to share your list allows other users to import it and automatically block the multiple accounts instantly and all at once. 
