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This Twitter hack allows anyone to tweet with 280 characters
Twitter is trialling doubling the length of tweets to 280 characters, potentially changing one of the defining features of the social network.
But for now the feature is just a test, meaning only a limited number of users have been allowed the chance to tweet with more than the standard 140 characters.
However, that hasn't stopped coders finding a way around to enable the longer tweets and offering an easy way for users to follow suit.
How to hack Twitter's character limit
If you want to be able to tweet using 280 characters there are various methods you can apply.
The easiest is using a short piece of code built by Twitter user Prof. 9. It involves installing a script reader onto Google Chrome and running this code.
First, go to Google's Chrome webstore and install Tampermonkey. Its safe - Tampermonkey is used by millions of people to make simple changes to web pages.
Then go to Prof. 9's code, which can be found on code database GitHub. Tap the "raw" button on the top right of the code, which will automatically add the code to Tampermonkey so you can get tweeting.
Alternatively, click the little Tampermonkey Chrome extension, which appears in the right hand corner of Google, and click "create new script".
Then copy and paste Prof. 9's code, into the box on Tampermonkey and hit "save". In both cases you will be able to tweet without the normal 140 character limit. You might have to refresh Twitter each time to tweet but you'll know it's working if the character count underneath the box for writing tweets doesn't start declining from 140.
Once you are finished tweeting with your new character limit, you can easily turn off the feature by left clicking the extension and toggling "on/off", or remove Tampermonkey by right clicking on the extension and hitting "remove from Chrome".
There is a more detailed workaround described on Twitter by user Rob Graham, however this is more complicated and involves editing the raw HTML, the building blocks behind the webpage, and installing a Linux reader on your PC.
Why is Twitter doing this?
Twitter has said it is offering users more chances to express themselves by extending the tweet limit. It also gives users in certain languages the chance to tweet for longer - for example, some tweets in English can appear significantly longer in other languages.
Tweets were originally meant to be formulated in the same way as text messages when the site was founded in 2006. Text limits ran to 160 characters, so the founder's kept the character limit a little shorter at 140 characters, according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.
The only languages the test does not apply to are Korean, Chinese and Japanese, since these languages use script rather than letters and are on average significantly shorter.
"We understand since many of you have been Tweeting for years, there may be an emotional attachment to 140 characters – we felt it, too," said Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen. "But we tried this, saw the power of what it will do, and fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint."
However, given that the average tweet is actually significantly under 140 characters, don't expect too many lengthy tweets appearing on your timelines just yet.