Twitter Officially Removes 140 Character Limit for Direct Messages

Twitter’s DMs will now closely resemble chat app messages, with no 140-character limit.

In the hope of attracting a wider user base by refining and simplifying its service, Twitter has announced that direct messages will now no longer have a 140-character limit.

After expanding the direct message (DM) function earlier this year to allow group messages, and then again to allow messaging between users that don’t follow each other, the newest change (which was originally flagged to developers in June) will let users transition from short public messages to longer private ones without having to switch to a messaging app or email.

“Each of the hundreds of millions of Tweets sent across Twitter every day is an opportunity for you to spark a conversation about what’s happening in your world”, product manager Sachin Agarwal said in a blog post. “Today’s change is another big step towards making the private side of Twitter even more powerful and fun.”

The new limit for DMs is technically 10,000 characters, but you’d have to be pretty keen to hit that. Public tweets will retain their 140-character limit.