Most Twitter users today post using the Twitter website, or a program or browser extension on their desktop, or an application on their phone. But lest we forget, Twitter was originally conceived with text (SMS) in mind. Consequently “tweets” are limited to 140 characters in length so that they fit in a single text message.
All good iPhone Twitter apps tell you how many characters you’ve used, but until recently the iPhone’s “Messages” app did not. If you wrote a message that was longer than the limit it would simply be split into pieces and transparently delivered as multiple separate messages. That’s fine when texting your fiends, but can be a real pain if you like to be old school and tweet via SMS.
With the new iOS 4 for iPhone, you can enable character count. Just open your Settings app, then Messages, and switch “Character Count” to “On.” Just remember that the iPhone shows how many characters you’ve used out of 160, not Twitter’s 140. Still, its better than manually counting to make sure you haven’t exceeded the limit.
