Twitter has a 140 character limit. It’s always had this limit though, in recent months it has relaxed on a few things. For example, user handles and links no longer count towards the characters you’re tweeting. This lets you fit more in the 140 characters but it’s not enough. Another neat change Twitter made is how it shows replies to a tweet. The UI enables users to create what has been dubbed a ‘Twitter Thread’. It’s basically a long tweet broken down into smaller tweets. It’s kept ‘together’ by the user adding the next tweet as a reply to the first one. Chirr App is a free web app that lets you create a Twitter thread from a long tweet. It breaks it down into smaller tweets and tweets them out for you in the correct format. All you need to do is compose your thoughts.
Create A Twitter Thread
Compose the tweet you want to break down into a thread. You can compose it in simple text app like Notepad. There’s no limit to how long your tweet can be when you create a Twitter thread. The only thing you need to be mindful of is where you add the paragraph breaks. Chirr App breaks a tweets down by paragraph breaks when it can. If there are no paragraph breaks in your tweet, it’s not a problem but be careful where you add them just the same.
Once you’ve composed the tweet, paste it in Chirr App. Click Publish. The first time you click the publish button, you will have to authorize the app to connect with your Twitter account. Once you’ve done that, the app will create a Twitter thread from your original tweet and post it. Chirr App will tell you how long a tweet it and how many tweets it will break the longer one down to.
An Essential Twitter Tool
You don’t necessarily need an app to create a Twitter thread but there are benefits to using one. You can compose whatever message it is you want to send without stopping to Tweet out a thought every time you hit the 140 character limit. You aren’t bothered about the character count while you compose your message. More importantly, your message is sent out in one go. There isn’t a long break between the first and second, and subsequent tweets. This prevents replies from other people throwing the thread format off. You can send out a message without worrying about the replies that are coming in.
Someone needs to turn this into a proper iOS and Android app. You can alternatively create a Twitter moment but it really isn’t the same thing.