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This is for backwards compatibility with SMS (text messaging). Only the length of the t.co link is counted toward your 140 characters. Images are the same -- th
by Nav_Panel 11y ago
This is for backwards compatibility with SMS (text messaging). Only the length of the t.co link is counted toward your 140 characters. Images are the same -- they are uploaded and a link is generated, so when you send a tweet over SMS the recipient can view the image.
More generally, if you think about Twitter's design decisions as preserving SMS compatibility, then a lot of strange choices make more sense.
- mcculley 11y agoI completely understand that SMS compatibility is a big reason for keeping the limit. I just don't think it's a good enough reason now that most users aren't using SMS or are on MMS where they have more than 160 total characters to play with. They could provide an option to SMS users to see a truncated tweet or a URL with the complete tweet, deprecate SMS but keep it around, and not let themselves be constrained by it.
- mcculley 11y agoAh! Interesting. That count of t.co URLs must have changed at some point. I see how it works now. Still, I don't think a URL should count against your character consumption at all. That is what led to URL shorteners and the damage they do to begin with.
- idle_zealot 11y agoYou just taught me that Twitter has sms support. I always thought the character limit was odd. Is there a particular market they're trying to reach with that feature, because I've never seen anyone use it.
- alexbilbie 11y agoTwitter pre-dates smartphones, mobile apps and push notifications