20 September, 2016
This is What's Trending Today...
Twitter has officially changed its 140 character limit.
But, that does not exactly mean you can start writing a 1,000-character Twitter message. The change only means that links and pictures will not be counted toward the limit.
A report in May suggested that the social media company was considering making the changes. Later, Twitter confirmed the news and Monday the company announced the changes were taking effect.
Twitter recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. It has been trying to grow its number of users and find ways to make money.
The company reportedly lost over 2 million users in the last part of 2015.
Jack Dorsey founded Twitter and then left. He came back to the company last year to try to improve its business. Dorsey said at the time that he was "not going to be shy about building more utility and power into Twitter for people."
Like Facebook, Twitter has been urging followers to use media such as photos and videos. It recently added a polling feature. The company also made changes to its timeline, permitting users to see so-called "best" tweets first.
The company has also announced that it reached a $10 million deal with the National Football League. Twitter will stream 10 Thursday night games during the American football season.
And that's What's Trending Today.
VOA News reported and wrote this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
character - n. a symbol (such as a letter or number) that is used in writing or printing
shy - adj. to try to avoid (something) because of nervousness, fear, dislike, etc.
utility - n. the quality or state of being useful
poll - n. an activity in which several or many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to get information about what most people think about something