Twitter announces expansion to 280 characters — and the internet isn’t having it

Twitter is making a big change — 280 characters worth, to be exact.

The social media platform announced Tuesday that it will be beta testing an increase in character limit, allowing a small group to experiment with tweeting up to 280 characters. The previous limit was 140 characters.


As with all things on Twitter, internet reaction was swift — and mostly negative, prompting many to respond with snarky statements about the unnecessary character change.

Chrissy Teigen, who, in addition to being a supermodel, is known for her whip-smart, hilarious tweets, was one of the first to respond: “Literally my only talent was being able to think of tweets exactly 140 characters long. I don’t know if I will be able to alter this to 280.” (We sincerely hope she finds a way.)

Many commented on President Trump’s propensity for tweeting, be it announcing new policies, staff changes, or directly addressing critics. Alyssa Milano wrote, “Let’s hope Trump is NOT a member of this small group,” in reference to the limited pool who will have the increased character limit.

Both Archie Comics and Kermit the Frog joked that Twitter now has almost as many characters as the Archie-verse and The Muppets.

Read below for a sampling of reactions to Twitter’s latest change.

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