As of February 20th 2013, users will have two fewer characters to send a message on Twitter when sharing links. The t.co wrapper that is used by Twitter to shorten web addresses is being lengthened from 20 to 22 characters, which means, in turn, that you have two fewer for the message itself.
According to Twitter, HTTP links will go from 20 to 22 and HTTPS links will go from 21 to 23 characters reserved for the t.co short-linking wrapper. If you haven’t noticed it on Twitter, when you share a link it is automatically shortened, and takes up exactly 20 characters, leaving you 120 for the message. Now, you‘ll have 118 (or 117 for HTTPS).
Twitter has not revealed why they are changing the links, only that the announcement comes for developers to change their apps in time should it use Twitter links. What is strange is that 20 characters already seemed unnecessary for creating a shorter link. According to the word flying around the web, it could have something to do with Twitter‘s analytics platform, which tracks the performance and traffic sent to t.co links.
At the end of the day, all it means is that you have two fewer characters for a message when sending a link, which is not a big deal at all. Or is it? Some people have gone vocal about it, disgusted after the Twitter announcement. I find this quite ridiculous, and it reminds me of the First World Problem meme making its rounds on the internet.
