Twitter recently announced that it’s making some changes in how people use its service and what tweets you’ll see.
Twitter changes to look out for
Replies
When you reply to someone on Twitter, the message starts with their @username, so if they had a long user name this would eat into the 140 characters you’re allowed for a tweet. Now, the @username won’t count as part of the 140 character message, which is particularly useful if you’re replying to a bunch of people at once.
Replies are now seen by everybody
Any message starting with an @username will be seen by all your followers, whereas previously it would only have been seen by anyone who follows both you and the person you’re replying to. Tweets have never been 100% private and they just got even less so, so never tweet anything you’re not happy for the whole world to see.
(Some) URLs won’t count
A URL at the end of Tweets generated from attaching photos, a video, GIF, poll, Quoted Tweet, or Direct Message link will also not count towards the character limit (URLs typed or pasted inside the Tweet will be counted towards the character limit as they do now).
Direct Messages are now longer
This one has been in operation for a while – Private direct messages can now be pretty much as long as you like and are no longer restricted to 140 characters.
These Twitter changes are rolling out over the next few months, so you won’t see all of them straight away.
What age do you need to be to have a Twitter account?
There is no age restriction on who can have a Twitter account. It used to be a minimum age of 13, but that hasn’t been the case for several years now. However, Twitter as a network has always been quite adult in tone, language and content, so if you are using it to promote your blog then we would recommend proceeding with caution and an adult’s permission.
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