11 Ways to Shorten and Lengthen a Tweet

So how come you can only send messages that are no longer than 140 characters?  The 140 character limitation for twitter messages comes from the length of text messages cell phones send and receive.

In twitter, the 140 character message limitation was set because there is a 160 character, SMS message limitation that exists for cell phones.  SMS stands for Short Message Service.  Twitter reserves 20 characters for your username.  That’s why there’s 140 character limitation for a twitter message.

However, if you’re in need of sending a longer message, here are a few tools to help you do that.

1. 140it

140it is a service that will take your tweet and shrink it for you.  You can browse to their web page at 140it.com and enter your tweet, then click the 140 It! button and your tweet will be shrunk by replacing words such as “because” to “bc” and “2″ for “to”.

140it also has a toolbar button you drag to your toolbar.  When finished writing a tweet on twitter.com you can click the “140 it” button and it will shrink your tweet.  Pretty cool.

2. TweetShrink

TweetShrink also offers a tweet shortening service that’s extremely fast.  You can enter your tweet at their site but I did not see a character counter like 140it has.  So as you type your tweet, you don’t know how many characters you’ve typed.  Now, just like 140it, tweetshrink offers a bookmarklet that goes on your browser’s toolbar so you can shrink the tweet you enter at twitter.com.

3. TwitterEyes

TwitterEyes is an experimental Firefox add-on that places a button under the tweet box at twitter.com that says TwitterEyes.  After you type in your tweet, click on the TwitterEyes button and presto, your tweet has been shrunken.    Remember this is in experimental mode so you might find different results.

4. TwitterContd

TwitterContd allows you to write a 1250 character message as well as upload 100MB of  audio, video, images, and documents.  Using OAuth authorization service, you can connect to twitter and TwitterContd will display your tweets that you’ve sent.  Create your tweet and TwitterContd will submit it automatically for you.

5. Twitblogs

Twitblogs also allows you to upload images as well as video.  There home page says, “Twitter + Blogging = Twitblogs”.  With microblogging using twitter and the rich environment that blogs provide via text, images and video Twitblogs allows you to combine both worlds.

You’ll also be able to shrink URLs, create Hashtags, create short blog posts and save them as drafts, and much more.  Check it out.  Twitblogs is pretty nice.

6. shortText.com

shortText.com allows you to write up to 30,000 characters, link images and videos, use rich text, allow comments, make a message private, buy custom-named URLs and more.  It’s a complete solution for someone who wants to share media online without owning a website or a blog.

7. Bigtweet

BigTweet allows you to place a bookmarklet on your browser’s toolbar.  When you’re on a web page you click on the BigTweet bookmarklet and a pop-up window will display over the current web page with the link to it already in a message box with the title of the web page.

You can post to twitter and friendfeed as well as delicious links and on and on and on.  BigTweet also uses bit.ly to shorten URLs and track stats on the links in your tweets.  PCT – Pretty Cool Tool.

8. TwitterMail

Twittermail.com allows you to send tweets by email.  Just email to twittermail.com and twittermail will do the rest.  Twittermail will create a special email address for you that you use to send tweets via email to.

When you send more than 140 hcaracters, Twittermail will tweet a short message for you and provide a link in the complete tweet.  They use twitpic so you can send images as well.  You can also send your tweets with syntax that will delay your tweets for delivery at a future time.

9. Twitlonger

Twitlonger allows you to, well, provide longer tweets.  Using a text box that has more room for your tweet, Twitlonger makes sure you provide a tweet longer than 140 characters before you can post it to twitter.  When you click on the Post It button, twitlonger will automatically post your tweet to twitter.

10. Twerbose

Twerbose has a simple editor as well as a rich text editor that allows you to provide text, images (2 max) as well as video in your tweets and the ability to add tags and make your tweet private or public.

Using OAuth authorization, the secure way to link your twitter account with third-party tools, Twerbose pulls in your twitter profile and displays your twitter image (avatar).  While you type in the simple editor, your tweet displays below the edit box as it would display on twitter with the link that people would click to read your full tweet.

11. txtB.in

txtB.in is a very simple web page that contains a text box to write your tweet.  When you’re done writing, click the big save txt button and you’ll be presented with a shorten URL to your tweet and a button that says Tweet This! After clicking on Tweet This! button part of your tweet will be placed in the main twitter.com page message box with the link to your longer tweet you created at txtB.in.  Very simple, effecient and effective.

If you find yourself going over 140 characters often, you might consider starting a blog for free at the Google Blogger service.  That way you can provide really long tweets (articles), tweet the link to the blog post and enjoy some Google Juice (eventually getting indexed in Google so people can find your articles for a long time).  

Tagged as: 140 Characters, BigTweet, TweetShrink, Twitblogs, TwitterContd, TwitterMail