World

Twitter gives users more leeway with their 140 characters

Twitter said the simplified rules will be introduced within months
Twitter said the simplified rules will be introduced within months Twitter said the simplified rules will be introduced within months

TWITTER users will be given extra room to rant, rave and reach out after bosses announced changes to its signature 140-character limit amid efforts to compete with its rivals.

The site has confirmed much-mooted plans to stop attachments and links from contributing to its strict total as part of the overhaul.

Twitter said the simplified rules - to be introduced within months - will mean users' handles are also removed from the character count when replying.

In addition, any new tweet beginning with a user's handle will be seen by all followers.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said: "We're always going to look for opportunities to make tweets a lot more expressive, and enable people to say what they want to say.

"As long as things are fast, easy, simple and expressive, we're going to look at what we can do to make Twitter a better experience."

Twitter has launched a handful of new features in recent months in an attempt to draw in new users, including re-designing the site's timeline so that tweets no longer appeared in chronological order. Instead, those posts Twitter believed to be of interest to users based on their activity are pushed to the top of the timeline.

The announcement comes as Twitter reported revenue of 595 million US dollars (£408 million) for the first three months of 2016, below the $607 million (£416 million) forecast by industry analysts.

However, the site added five million average monthly users, with that figure climbing to $310 million compared to the $305 million recorded in December.