About Tweets (Twitter Updates)

Twitter always asks the question, "What's happening?" Each answer to that question is considered a Twitter status update, or what people often call a "Tweet."

What's a Tweet?

A Tweet is any message posted to Twitter, and all are 140 characters or less. Once you've signed up, just type your first tweet in the update box (shown below). We'll even count the characters for you! Click the "Tweet" button to post the message to your profile. If you'd like to learn more about how to tweet, please read this article.
Another way (some say the best way!) to post updates is from your cell phone. Set up your phone and send Twitter a text message, or if your phone has a web browser, use the special version of our site that's made for mobile web browsers, m.twitter.com.

What should I tweet about?

Anything. But don't feel pressured to be noisy on Twitter. The network is mostly used to read and discover information. Some people like posting updates and news for others to read, but being an observer is were the real value lies.

Why 140 characters?

We like to keep it short and sweet! It also just so happens that 140 characters is the perfect length for sending status updates via text message. The standard text message length in most places is 160 characters per message. We reserve 20 characters for people's names, and the other 140 are all yours!