Twitter: Elon Musk Reveals Character Limit Will Increase to 4000

Twitter CEO Elon Musk continues to want to take the micro out of microblogging, pledging to increase the platform’s character limit once more.

The proposed increase this time is from 280 to 4000, which is more than 14 times the current cutoff.

Over the weekend, Musk revealed his latest Twitter plans via his personal account. When asked if it was “true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4000,” Musk responded in three words: “Yes.”

This isn’t the first time the billionaire has stated that Twitter’s character limit will be increased. Musk responded to a similar question in November by tweeting that increasing Twitter’s character limit was “on the todo [sic] list.” This was in reference to a 1000-character limit, rather than the more recently proposed 4000-character limit.

Regardless of the exact figure, it appears that Twitter will receive a significant character count increase in the future.

Mashable has reached out to Twitter for comment because we enjoy the whistling sound emails make when they are dropped into Twitter’s abandoned press inbox.

There’s no word on when Twitter’s character limit will be raised, though it’s unlikely to be Musk’s top priority. Since the new CEO took over, Twitter has been publicly struggling, with hastily implemented new features and mass layoffs causing widespread chaos. Musk reportedly threatened to sue Twitter employees who spoke to the press over the weekend.

Twitter previously increased its character limit from 140 to 280 in 2017 under then-CEO Jack Dorsey. The original 140-character limit was based on the 160-character limit of SMS at the time, because Twitter delivered posts from accounts you followed as text messages. With the advent of smartphones, this became increasingly irrelevant, and Twitter discontinued its SMS service in most countries in 2020.

Though many people were skeptical of Twitter’s move to 280 characters at the time, users eventually adapted to the new standard. However, multiplying Twitter’s character limit by 14 is a far cry from simply doubling it, and it has the potential to fundamentally change Twitter’s nature as a microblogging platform. However, based on his actions thus far, Musk does not appear to be concerned about preserving Twitter as we know it.

Amanda Yeo is Mashable’s Australian correspondent, focusing on entertainment, culture, technology, science, and social good. Everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets is included.