Twitter drops 140 character limit from Direct Messages

As promised back in June, the character limit for Direct Messages on Twitter is being increased. The 140 character barrier is being dropped so messages sent between Twitter users can be much, much longer than before.

The character limit for regular tweets remains the same -- and tweets via SMS are still subject to the same restrictions -- but private conversations can now be much more verbose. The increase will affect Twitter.com, iOS and Android mobile apps, TweetDeck, and Twitter for Mac.

Twitter says that the change allows you to "Speak your mind. All of it". Allowing for lengthier tweets in private conversation shows that Twitter is interested in much more than public tweets, but things remain the same everywhere else. The character increase is far from small; today's change sees the limit increase from a mere 140 characters to a whopping 10,000.

Twitter product manager Sachin Agarwal announced the official start of support for longer private tweets, but gave no indication that we should expect the character limit on public tweets to change any time soon.

The roll out starts today, so make sure to check for app updates, or just be patient if the Twitter website still imposes a limit on your account -- the change is on its way any time now so you can chat away to your heart's content.

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