Twitter Introduces Longer-Form Writing With New Notes Feature

Twitter is currently testing a Notes feature, which removes the 280-character limit, essentially creating a blog.

Once upon a time, Twitter had a 140-character limit, which many users found too restrictive. That limit has since doubled to 280, but sometimes even that may not be enough to say all you want. Sure it's possible to use Twitlonger to work around those limitations (in a fashion), or you can thread subsequent tweets together, but that can be a little clunky. So Twitter came up with Notes—a way for writers to go well beyond the 280-character limit, attach multiple photos/videos/GIFs, and share with both on and offline users. It's blogging. Twitter just "invented" blogging.

The whole point of Notes (Twitter goes out of its way to clarify it's not called "Twitter Notes," just "Notes") is to allow writers to expand their thoughts with fewer restrictions. As previously mentioned, the 280-character limit is gone, photos/videos/GIFs/other tweets can be embedded, and notes on pre- and post-publishing edits can be attached. So in a way, it's kind of like finally getting that edit button?

Once published, Notes will appear as a sort of news post-style preview link that others can click on in order to view the full story. Published Notes will also appear in their own tab as part of the writer's Twitter profile—right alongside Media, Likes, and so on.

Notes is currently being tested by a select group of writers from Canada, Ghana, the UK, and the US. According to Twitter, testing will proceed for the next two months, with participants giving feedback on possible feature adjustments. There are currently no details on a public release, but Twitter says it will expand the test group "soon."