Twitter stops counting usernames in replies against 140 character limit

Twitter shared today that it has finally flipped the switch on no longer counting usernames against character limits on tweets. Since tweets are limited to 140 characters, usernames for mentions and replies shortened the amount of characters you could include in a message.

This change was first detailed last fall when Twitter stopped counting media like images and links against the character limit, although the username rule has taken a bit longer to implement.

With this change, we’ve simplified conversations in a few ways:

Who you are replying to will appear above the Tweet text rather than within the Tweet text itself, so you have more characters to have conversations.

You can tap on “Replying to…” to easily see and control who’s part of your conversation.

When reading a conversation, you’ll actually see what people are saying, rather than seeing lots of @usernames at the start of a Tweet.

It’s a very simple change that should make Twitter less restrictive without increasing the character limit which was once rumored. Now the Twitter Canoe can be a lot bigger… Twitter specifies on its help site that replies can display up to 50 people.

Twitter says the new behavior is rolling out for everyone starting today on the web, iOS, and Android.