Twitter To Launch Revamped Character Count For Media Attachments On Sept. 19 (Report)

After Twitter confirmed that critical changes to its platform were afoot in May, the company will reportedly no longer count media attachments — such as images, GIFs, videos, or polls — toward its 140 character limit beginning on Sept. 19. The Verge, which cited sources familiar with the matter, notes that the shift will aim to give users more flexibility in sending tweets, and also make composition more consistent and easy to understand for new users.

In addition to characterless media attachments, Twitter will also cease to count quoted tweets as well usernames that appear at the beginning of replies toward the 140 character limit. And additionally, users will no longer need to utilize the ‘.@’ format to have a Tweet that starts with a username reach all of their followers. The Verge reports that these changes could arrive in stages, or all at once, but will kick off on Monday.

“We’re exploring ways to make existing uses easier and enable new ones,” senior product manager Todd Sherman said of the changes in May, “all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections, and conversations.”

Twitter has several other products in the works to help creators monetize, as well as to help rid the platform of rampant trolling and abuse. Twitter announced a new ad-sharing program and media hub for creators last month, which will share pre-roll revenues with creators in a generous 70/30 split. Twitter also reportedly has had a keyword-based harassment filtering feature in the works for about a year that will allow users to sweepingly stamp out words that appear within their feeds, including swears, racial slurs, and other insults.