Character limit removal a way to make the platform more accessible

In an effort to appeal to a wider audience, Twitter may alter the maximum character length for tweets or remove it entirely, according to a report on Recode.net.

Although 23 percent of Web users are on Twitter, usage of the site plateaued last year, and has remained static since. Interim CEO Jack Dorsey wants to explore options to attract more users to the platform.

While there are third-party tools such as Twitlong and OneShot that allow you to share more than 140-characters’ worth of content, it’s not a function native to the platform. Twitter recently removed the 140-character limit for private messages across the service, and allows users to “retweet and comment,” which embeds the original tweet and gives users 116 characters to comment on it.

Extending or removing the character limit might allow publishers and other bigger name users to share directly with Twitter followers more often, but without its signature character limit what will set it apart from other social media services? Seventy-two percent of online adults use Facebook, which is 62 percent of American adults. Both Facebook and Twitter have seen user growth plateau in recent years, with little change since 2013. But users that may have been turned off by Twitter’s post length restrictions might reconsider if the character limit is lifted.