Twitter’s 140 Character Limit No Longer Counts Usernames and Attachments

Just over a week ago it was rumoured Twitter was set to make changes on how their character limit would no longer affected by usernames. This morning, the company made the announcement official, detailing changes on what to expect, coming soon.

The company explains to iPhone in Canada via email these changes “will give users some additional options when composing their Tweets,” with changes set to roll out in the “next few months” on the web, iOS, Android, TweetDeck, Mac and ads.twitter.com.

Below are the changes you need to know:

• Replies: usernames of people you’re responding to no longer count towards the character limit; @handles no longer will be in tweet text, but now in display elements
• Attachments: these no longer count as characters in your tweets (photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or quote Tweets)
• No more .@: any tweets beginning with @ will reach timelines of all your followers; you will no longer need to use “.@”
• Retweet yourself: you can now easily retweet or quote tweet yourself; you no longer need to use .@ to share a reply sent to your followers.

Twitter explains links will still count against the character limit, and users can include up to four images or one GIF/video/poll/Quote per tweet.

Below is a GIF the company passed along to explain three ways these changes “will make the most of your 140 characters”:

It’s about time usernames no longer counted towards character limits. Stay tuned for this roll out.