Questions and Clarifications needed for Tweets and #Beyond140

[msbukkuri]

All (maybe specifically @juanshishido @imit8me @JBabichJapan) -

Just wanted to pose some questions to further my understanding in regards to creating Tweets (specifically on the character count of the text) on the Ads API using this endpoint - https://dev.twitter.com/ads/reference/post/accounts/%3Aaccount_id/tweet.

In the past, this is how we used to count characters for Tweets.

Each Tweet can have a maximum of 140 characters except in the following cases:

• when a tweet has an image, the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has an link - no matter how long the link is, the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has a card (also just a URL), the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has a link and an image, the tweet can only have 92 characters of text

According to https://dev.twitter.com/overview/api/upcoming-changes-to-tweets - it’s not very clear on how this is changing.

Do we no longer have to account for the above?
Can we now post 140 characters without accounting 23 characters for images, cards and URLs?
Or do we have to do additional work in order to account for URLs, Images, and Cards by placing them in other fields?
If so, how do we set those fields on the https://dev.twitter.com/ads/reference/post/accounts/%3Aaccount_id/tweet endpoint?

Please advise.

[manueldelgado]

Hi, is it only me or there is a reply to this post by @juanshishido that I cannot see?

I am interested in this topic, too, so any information about it will be much helpful.

[richardhyland]

Each Tweet can have a maximum of 140 characters except in the following cases:

• when a tweet has an image, the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has an link - no matter how long the link is, the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has a card (also just a URL), the tweet can only have 116 characters of text
• when a tweet has a link and an image, the tweet can only have 92 characters of tex

It’s is actually pretty clear in the docs in my opinion.

So if you do nothing then the above rules are still the same but you may end up with truncated tweets with a link to Twitter web.

However if you add tweet_mode=extended to all endpoints you call that return Tweets you’ll get extended tweet meta data back. This will come in the form of full_text instead of text, display_text_range

When you post a new tweet you’ll see the following

1. Tweets with images will now have 140 characters of text so long as you add media_ids to the statuses/update endpoint
2. When a Tweet contains a link not specifically attached you’ll have 140 characters but the links will still take the length of a t.co link, this is unchanged and works exactly the same as before
3. When a Tweet contains a Twitter link attached using the attachment_url parameter or posted through managed media ids then you’ll get the full 140 characters
4. If you post a managed media attachment AND attachment_url you’ll only get 116 characters as only one link is in the hidden link metadata

[imit8me]

Thank you for your response @richardhyland. You’re absolutely correct in your post, however I wanted to make an addendum specific to the Ads API. The Ads API does not currently support the attachment_url param. This param is used only to link to quoted tweets and retweets. Since Promoted-Only tweets aren’t eligible to link to either quoted tweets or retweets, this param is currently unavailable on the Ads API. Please check out our announcement post on this feature for more details.

Hope that answers your question, @msbukkuri!