Learning from Twitter:
Telegram will introduce a 140 character limit with version 4.0
Telegram increasingly has to compete with other services. Telegram founder Pavel Durov told us today, that chat messages - similar to Twitter - will soon no longer be able to exceed a total length of 140 characters.
"Our voluntary support team has been in contact with hundreds of users and we realized that long messages are one of the most hated elements of Telegram", Pavel Durov explains. "The attention span of many users is simply not long enough."
The shortening to a maximum of 140 characters per message is therefore only logical. Previously, the limit was 8192 characters. An integrated counter shows the user how many characters he still has available.
According to Durov, the limit also has other advantages: "Endless chain letters are virtually impossible", he notes. "Excessive declarations of love are reduced to the most necessary. Group chats are also much less exhausting if all parties are compelled to keep themselves adequately short."
Anyone who still has a lot to say, will be able to continue using emojis in the future, since they are counted as only one character, according to Durov.
The innovation will be rolled out with Telegram 4.0 in the coming weeks for all users (other new features should include the Payment API and a new UI called "Hologram").