Twitter an**unced today that it will be making a number of expected changes to simplify tweets over the coming months.
First and foremost, when replying to a tweet, Twitter Handles such as @MacRumors will ** longer count toward the 140-Character limit. Media attachments, like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, and Quote Tweets, will also ** longer be counted.
The changes should provide Twitter users, including brands and websites, with more characters for actual text and article headlines.
Meanwhile, new **n-reply tweets that begin with a username will **w reach all of a user's followers, eliminating the need to use the ".@" convention to broadcast a tweet widely. Last, Twitter users will be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet their own tweets.
Twitter expects the changes to have a significant impact on tweets, so the microblogging service aims to provide its developer partners with time to make any needed updates to products built using the Twitter API.