Report: Links, images will soon stop eating up your Twitter character count

Not quite as intense as January's rumored 10,000-character jump.
Reports and rumors about changes to Twitter's famous character-count limit became more concrete on Monday thanks to a new report, and the alleged change appears to split the difference between the current model and an unlimited post size.

Bloomberg's report credits "a person familiar with the matter" in claiming that Twitter posts will soon begin serving links and images that do not eat into a post's 140-character limit. The report's source indicated that the change could happen "in the next two weeks" but was unable to offer any firmer timeline. Currently, Twitter automatically shortens any URL or uploaded image into a link that takes up approximately 21 characters.

Many users, including Ars Technica's official Twitter feed, have begun relying on attached, text-filled images to show longer text passages, pull quotes, and the like. We imagine the tiny boost of 21 characters for image posts will simply encourage more users to follow suit, though it remains to be seen how such links will be served, particularly to any users who rely solely on character-limited SMS access. In January, Ars' Peter Bright argued that such image-posting capabilities, combined with a 140-character limit, would preserve Twitter's best attributes better than a previously rumored plan to open posts up to a much larger 10,000-character limit.

When asked by Ars about the veracity of the report, Twitter declined to comment.