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We found an easier way to get Twitter’s new 280-character limit

Published Sep 27th, 2017 9:32PM EDT
Twitter character limit 280

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So, unless you’re wise enough to have disposed of all social media and moved to a cave upstate, you’ve probably heard that Twitter is experimenting with a new 280-character tweet limit. Unfortunately, Twitter has only granted the power to a random sample of select users — at least natively.

We already saw a Github script to get around Twitter’s restrictions, and now someone has packaged that code into a simple bookmark.  All you need is a tiny Javascript widget and about 20 seconds of your time.

Juliette Pretot, a web developer, has managed to put together a work-around using TweetDeck and a small piece of Javascript. She outlines the process in her post, but basically, all you have to do is add a bookmark to your bar, go to TweetDeck (a third-party Twitter client), click on the bookmark, and then use TweetDeck to compose and post your tweet. It’ll then show up on Twitter just like normal:

In case you’re having any problems, just note that you need to click the bookmark before you open the compose window, not after. You’ll also have to re-click the bookmark every time you reload the webpage.

Regardless, it’s not a lot of work to get access to the biggest new feature Twitter has released in years. Just make sure you use your 280-character powers for good, not trolling.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.