Extended Tweet Prefix Size Limit

TweetinviApi · 2016-06-16T09:09:17.123Z

In the documentation we can read :

@mentions: a limit of 50 @mentions per Tweet in the hidden region. This is enforced on the server side, so that users cannot exceed this number.

If a user adds more than 50 @mentions, will the Tweet be rejected or will @mention 51 considered as being part of the tweet content?

I personally understand it as the query being rejected.

andypiper · 2016-06-16T14:08:05.993Z

Anything added in the text region is counted in the Tweet body. It is ONLY if the Tweet call uses the server-side lookup option that @mentions are prepended.

If the number is exceeded i.e. a Tweet with 50 existing @mentions is replied to via the server-side lookup option, then additional @mentions may be ignored or dropped from the body.

TweetinviApi · 2016-06-17T16:47:21.559Z

andypiper:

Anything added in the text region is counted in the Tweet body. It is ONLY if the Tweet call uses the server-side lookup option that @mentions are prepended.

If the number is exceeded i.e. a Tweet with 50 existing @mentions is replied to via the server-side lookup option, then additional @mentions may be ignored or dropped from the body.

Thanks andy, so if we use the lookup options and set 51 @mentions, the the mention number 51 will not be included in the content and the update_status will not fail.

andypiper · 2016-06-18T01:11:19.743Z

That’s my current understanding. The additional mention would drop.

TweetinviApi · 2016-06-18T02:20:01.438Z

Also I realized that

The REST API endpoints that create new Tweets (statuses/update) will accept a new boolean parameter when a Tweet is sent as a reply to a conversation: auto_populate_reply_metadata (true to enable, false to disable, false being the default). The existing in_reply_to_status_id must also be set.

It means that if we create a new tweet, that is not a direct reply to another one but we do use @mention at the beginning of the Tweet, it will be counted as part of the Content (140 characters).

If this is true, why such decision?

andypiper · 2016-06-20T14:32:59.483Z

That’s correct. The new behaviour is tied to the idea of Tweets being part of a conversation and the reply-to Tweet being there to lookup the @mentions.