Last week we reported that Twitter was readying for a change to its 140 character limit when Tweeting publicly. Now, the company's official blog confirms the news, with usernames and images no longer counting as part of Twitter's character limit. Those are not the only alterations to the social media platform, with Retweets and replies getting a few improvements. 

For now, the exact date of the change has not been confirmed, as Twitter is likely giving its developer community time to update their respective apps via the new API. Along with media (photos, videos, GIFs, Vines, etc.), the @ prefix for replies is also no longer counted as part of the 140 character limit. To that end, when crafting a reply to another Twitter user whose included your handle in a Tweet, there is no longer a need to add the @ symbol. Added to this, Retweets or Quote Tweets will also be seen as media, and therefore will not count towards your 140 characters. 

Twitter has stated that the change results from a desire to give users more "freedom of expression". As such, it may help them keep pace with the likes of Instagram and Snapchat, with these changes hopefully enticing current and potential users to start Tweeting again. Whether or not these series of changes can in fact do that, remains to be seen.