Since Twitter’s founding, brevity has been of paramount importance to the company. But now that Twitter doubled the character limit from 140 to 280 characters, tweets are about to get big. The social media platform released a statement explaining that Twitter doubled the character limit to give users more room to express themselves.

A few reasons Twitter doubled the character limit in tweets.

First and foremost, Twitter doubled the character limit because tweeting in 140 characters has proved to be frustrating. The 280 character test run has been running for a few days, and people are tweeting more than ever. “When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare, we see more people tweeting,” Twitter representatives say (Via NY Times).

Twitter says that over 9 percent of all tweets are exactly 140 characters, which means that most people have to abridge their ideas in order to fit the constraints. Twitter has made strides toward changing the character limit in the past. One attempt included allowing videos and photo additions without losing any of the 140 characters. While that helped slightly, Twitter believes that increasing the character count is the next step.

Twitter Users Reactions are Not all Positive.

Plenty of users are excited about the ability to expand their thoughts via Twitter, but many are lashing out about the change. Users are used to the concept of using 140 characters, and some feel that this change will upset way twitter is supposed to operate. Twitter understands the complaints, but retorts with evidence of more frequent tweets from people in Asian markets who need fewer characters to be equally as expressive as those writing in English. As a platform trying to increase users, Twitter stands by the decision to test the new 280 character limit and hopes to see increases in tweets among English speaking users.