Twitter Is Testing Out 280-Character Tweets

If you were struggling to fit your tweet into the allotted space of 140 characters, you’re in luck — Twitter is experimenting with doubling that amount.

The social media company announced Tuesday that it was testing tweets as long as 280 characters, double the previous amount of 140. However, the feature is only available to a select few at the moment, and is not available in Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

“We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean),” Twitter explained in a blog post. “Although we feel confident about our data and the positive impact this change will have, we want to try it out with a small group of people before we make a decision to launch to everyone.”

Twitter said that longer tweets were much more popular among those writing in English, as opposed to Japanese, citing data that only .4 percent of tweets written in Japanese were 140 characters, as compared with 9 percent written in English.

“Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people Tweeting in English, but it is not for those Tweeting in Japanese,” the company said.

Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com.