Twitter is set to relax its strict 140-character per tweet limit in a bid to refine and simplify its core product, as the firm struggles to increase its user base.

Media attachments like photos and videos will no longer count towards the limit (previously taking up 24 characters), and neither will Twitter handles when replying to a tweet.

Users will be able to retweet and “quote tweet” their own content, enabling them to resurface previous tweets and add new commentary.

In addition, any new Tweet beginning with “@name” will be seen by all followers, removing the need to add a full stop at the front.

“The simplified rules will make conversations faster and more intuitive for people who come to Twitter everyday and those who are new to the service,” the company explained.

Easier and faster
Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder, said: “We’re focused on making Twitter a whole lot easier and faster. This is what Twitter is great at – what’s happening now, live conversation and the simplicity that we started the service with.”

Earlier this year, Twitter announced changes to its timeline, which it said increased engagement and saw less than two percent of people opt out.

Improvements were also made to the process of signing up new users, which Twitter claims resulted in “dramatic increases” in follows, up 48 percent, and “mutual follows”, up 56 percent on average across both iOS and Android.

Mutual follows are important because it’s two people who recognise each other, talk to each other and give each other feedback, critical for new engagement and usage, the company explained.

Twitter added that it is announcing these changes to give developers time to make updates to the “hundreds of thousands” of products built using its platform, which includes Fabric, the company’s mobile developer toolset.

In April, Twitter announced over two billion mobile devices use Fabric-enabled apps every month.

Last week, Twitter announced it is beta testing a way for developers to display ads from MoPub, its advertising exchange, directly within Twitter Kit timelines in Android and iOS apps and rolled out a “go live” button for some users of its app, which will enable them to easily launch a Periscope stream.

In Q4 2015, Twitter saw no growth in its user base but in Q1 2016 its user base went up by 5 million, with all users coming from outside the US. Its Q1 net loss was $80 million, an improvement from $162 million a year ago.