Question =
Twitter, the fastest growing online social network, which is being adopted practically en masse by politicians, celebrities ... started as a primarily SMS-based service, where the standard character limit is 160-characters. The 140-character limit is based on this SMS limit, leaving 20 characters for the username. This helped all tweets to stay within one text message, instead of inundating people with multiple texts per tweet.
Now that most people use Twitter from the web or a mobile app, the 140-character limit is more of a systemic limitation rather than a technical one.
Now that most people use Twitter from the web or a mobile app, the 140-character limit is more of a systemic limitation rather than a technical one.
Why text messages are limited to 160 characters and who conceptualized it ?
Answer =
Friedhelm Hillebrand conceptualised SMS in 1984.
SMS, which began as a means for control of mobile networks, then morphed into a messaging system for anyone.
he conducted experiments to determine the length needed for text messages and found that 160 characters was sufficient. This subsequently became the basis for the 140 character limit now used by Twitter.
Twitter started as a primarily SMS-based service, where the standard character limit is 160-characters. The 140-character limit is based on this SMS limit, leaving 20 characters for the username. This helped all tweets to stay within one text message, instead of inundating people with multiple texts per tweet.
Now that most people use Twitter from the web or a mobile app, the 140-character limit is more of a systemic limitation rather than a technical one.
Now that most people use Twitter from the web or a mobile app, the 140-character limit is more of a systemic limitation rather than a technical one.
SMS messaging was used for the first time on 3 December 1992, when Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old test engineer for Sema Group in the UK (now Airwide Solutions), used a personal computer to send the text message "Merry Christmas" via the Vodafone network to the phone of Richard Jarvis
Radiolinja became the first network to offer a commercial person-to-person SMS text messaging service in 1994. When Radiolinja's domestic competitor, Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) also launched SMS text messaging in 1995 and the two networks offered cross-network SMS functionality, Finland became the first nation where SMS text messaging was offered on a competitive as well as on a commercial basis.
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