

Why does Twitter limit to 140 characters? - gcao

I wonder how they came up with that number. Is that the size of one TCP/UDP packet or what?
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anigbrowl
SMS/text message length, minus the site identifier; lets people use the
service via cellphone. As for why text messages are restricted to that length,
word is that the guy who developed the first system felt 160 characters was
plenty for most communication needs, based on the average length of a random
sample of sentences and considering the tedium of having to enter the message
via the 12 buttons of a then-typical telephone keypad.

So ultimately, it's arbitrary but practical.

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gcao
Thank you!

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lotharbot
It's based on SMS [0], the standard that allows telephones to receive text
messages. The message size in SMS is limited to 1120 bits, which works out to
140 8-bit characters (or 160 7-bit characters.) One of twitter's design goals
was to be usable from the broadest set of mobile devices possible.

[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS>

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gcao
That sounds a good reason. Thank you!

