And just when everyone was going crazy making 280 character tweets, Twitter support announced that Twitter names (not screen names) can now be up to 50 characters.
Starting today, your Twitter display name can be up to 50 characters in length! Go ahead, add that middle name or even a few more emojis. https://t.co/QBxx9Hnn1j
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 10, 2017
A Twitter name is a descriptive identifier for a Twitter user. It's not the famous "@ name", but instead works like a title. For example, our screen name is "@cloudscopeio" and our Twitter name is "CloudScope". There is no change in the length of screen names. Yet.
From among the two million plus Twitter accounts that we are tracking now in our beta period, approximately 1,070 accounts had adopted a new, longer Twitter name in the first 24 hours after it was announced. For example, @SesameWorkshop used the full 50 characters to become "Sesame Workshop-The Nonprofit Behind Sesame Street". And @Athletics mildly expanded to 24 characters, becoming "Oakland Athletics π³πβΎοΈ".
Lots of change happening in Twitter data structures these days. Who knows what next week will bring?