Limits alleviate some of the strain on the behind-the-scenes part of Twitter and reduce downtime and error pages. But why too many Twitter limits? Users desperately want to know why they have to feel trapped when using the service. All they have to say is that they’ve put certain constraints on the account actions for the sake of reliability. So, we gathered a run-down of all the limits to help our readers understand how to avoid them. Keep reading to find out what these Twitter limits are.
The Twitter Follow Limit
From 2,000 Twitter increased its Follow Limit to 5,000. Most social networks have limits for the number of people you can follow. An example, Google+ currently has a limit of 5,000 people you can have in your circles, and you have a limit of 5,000 Friends on Facebook. This is to stop people, businesses, or automated programs from abusing the system.
On Twitter, it used to be possible to bulk follow thousands and thousands of people in the hope that they would follow you back. This caused many Twitter accounts to abuse it and follow tens of thousands of people whilst not creating engaging content and not having many people follow them back. So technically, each Twitter account can follow up to 400 accounts per day. Twitter Accounts with the blue verified badge can exceptionally follow up to 1,000 accounts daily.
The Twitter Unfollow Limit
So, how many people can you unfollow? This is more of a tricky question since Twitter doesn’t say. Twitter doesn’t allow any automated tools for unfollowing because this could go against their Terms. The issue is what Twitter calls “aggressive follower churn” where following and unfollowing people in quick succession with a purpose to rapidly increase followers. So, is there a number on how many people you can unfollow at one time? Not really, but you can use this example: If you unfollow more than 500 accounts in a day to unclutter your feed, you would likely get banned.
Tweet Limits
According to Twitter cofounders Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, the 140-character restriction is arbitrarily based on the 160-character SMS limit. Since Twitter was designed to be used as an SMS text medium for a limited group of people, they trimmed 20 characters off the username and went with 140. Additionally, they believed Twitter limits inspire people to be more creative, off the cuff, and at the moment.
In 2017, Twitter made a significant move by increasing the character count of Tweets from 140 to 280. “This is a small change, but it is a big move for us,” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. When it comes to defining characters, most European letters and punctuation forms are counted as one, whereas each CJK glyph is counted as two.
Twitter List Limits
With 500 million tweets sent every day, there’s a high probability of missing top tweets of a topic. Twitter Lists, a targeting tool offered by Twitter, lets you modify, organize, and prioritize the Tweets that pop up in your timeline and stay on top of the most important conversations.
However, Twitter has placed some restrictions on lists, which you should be aware of. For example, per account, 1000 lists are allowed. And in the per list, 5000 accounts are allowed. Also, the names can’t be longer than 25 characters, nor can they start with a number. An example below is a list from Mark, which is the best example of a well-managed Twitter list.
Twitter Media Length/Size Limits
Although Twitter is a text-based platform, you have a better chance of stopping scrollers and encouraging them to look at your content if you include an accompanying image or a video based on the Twitter algorithm. To ensure that the platform runs smoothly and uniformly on all devices, Twitter has set some limits on the length, size, and format of the media shared on the platform.
- The maximum filesize for a Tweet Video is 512MB.
- The default video length is 140 seconds (2 minutes and 20 seconds).
- Twitter videos should have a minimum resolution of 32 x 32 pixels and a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 or 1200 x 1900 pixels.
- Supported video formats on the Twitter mobile app are MP4 and MOV and MP4 with H264 format with AAC audio on the web. If the video isn’t in a supported format, it’ll notify you.
Twitter Maximum Character Per DMs, Profile Name, Bio, And Handle
Twitter doesn’t even go easy on direct messages, profile names, bios, or handles and has set a character limit on them.
- A DM can include a maximum of 10,000 characters. So, when you have the stuff to do, get right to the point.
- Profile Name allows a 50-character limit only.
- Twitter Handle allows beginning with @, to 15 characters only.
- And finally, Profile Description is up to 160-characters limit only.
What Happens When You Hit a Limit?
If you do reach a limit, Twitter lets you know with an error message telling you which limit you’ve hit. For limits that are time-based (like the Direct Messages, Tweets, changes to account email, and API request limits), you’ll be able to try again after the time limit has elapsed. The Tweet limit of 2,400 updates per day is further broken down into semi-hourly intervals. If you hit your account update/Tweet limit, you can try again in a few hours after the limitation period has elapsed.
Conclusion
We hope you understood in-depth how crucial these limits can be. Remember, Twitter is a social network – these limits will benefit best your account. If these are not practices, there’s a higher chance your Twitter account gets banned. Do you think these limits are appropriate, or do you think they should be modified? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
