Twitter is overhauling some of its rules to try to make itself simpler to use and more attractive to newcomers.
Members will be able to add multimedia to tweets – including pictures and videos – without eating into the 140-characters-a-post limit.
The service is also changing the way it handles conversations between users.
Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey told the BBC his aim was to ensure that “when people tweet, it makes sense”.
The changes, as outlined by Twitter, will be:
- media attachments, such as photos and videos, will no longer count towards the character limit
- @names in reply to tweets will not be counted
- people will be able to retweet and quote-tweet themselves, enabling them to resurface any of their previous posts and add new commentary
In addition, any new tweet – ie one that isn’t a reply to someone else’s tweet – that starts with a username will now be seen by all of a person’s followers.
