Twitter removes the limit of 140 characters in your private messages – Le Figaro

Messaging social network, much appreciated by its users, is the subject of many changes for several months.

Twitter turns, in part, its cuti. The social network announced Wednesday the end of the 140 character limit in private messages. Users will be able to send many letters, within the limit of 10,000 characters, in conversations with two or more. This innovation was already announced via Twitter its developer community in June. It will be phased in starting on Wednesday. An update will be available tonight on Android and iOS Twitter applications. The change also concerns its web version for the Mac platform and Tweetdeck. Public tweets, themselves, will be limited to 140 characters.

Twitter has built its reputation on courts and public messages. These are convenient for expressing a simple idea or talking about current events. This is less the case when it comes to exchange privately. Why send a letter to a contact on Twitter, the risk of its split into multiple messages, rather than email? To prevent such leakage to other services, the social network has therefore set out to renovate its messaging. Besides the late 140 characters, it is now possible to exchange privately with several people at once in the same discussion. One can also choose to receive messages from users who do not follow its own account, a particularly convenient option for brands and journalists who would like to contact Internet.

On the Web and mobile, messaging is a critical issue. Besides competition from social networks, Twitter must also face the instant messaging applications, such Messenger, WhatsApp (both properties of Facebook) or Snapchat. Other services, such as Japanese Line, developed around messaging as central point, then adding other features like ecommerce or social. All these applications claiming each of the hundreds of millions of users.

It has long been suspected of wanting to separate his Twitter messaging in a new mobile application. A duplication project which nevertheless carries the risk of losing some of its audience. At least not force its users to download the new service, like Facebook did with Messenger. For now, the social network so prefer leverage its native application. With 80% of its active users logging on mobile, it is the already well equipped to become a true messaging smartphone.

The subject is all the more important that Twitter is going through a growth failure. It has seen its users grow by just 2.6% between the first and second quarter 2015. This new messaging not only allows it to satisfy the loyal users: it also retains the least frequent users.