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What’s the maximum length of a Facebook status update?




This is basic Facebook 101, but I’m sure that most of you have -at least one time- hit the maximum length of a status update.

A Facebook status update is limited to 420 characters (including spaces).

Let’s compare with the maximum length of a few other statuses:

  • The Facebook status message limit equals the max. number of characters of a single SMS or mobile text message.
  • The length of a tweet on Twitter is slightly more limited: 140 characters.
  • And a personal status message on Windows Live Messenger is restricted to 128 characters.

Facebook Update StatusOur blog’s slogan states that people nowadays read status updates instead of books, and that’s because the 100-and-something character limits of these services turn our everyday stories into easily consumable microcontent for the masses.

That said, it definitely requires some training and creativity to express yourself everytime in just 160 characters or less. Occasionally, I wish people in real life would be restricted to 160 letters when they rant about something. Can we have laws for this?

UPDATE: Since our original post, Facebook has increased the status length limit from 160 to 420 500 5000 63,206 characters!

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Side notes

What’s the maximum length of a Facebook status update? Posted by on February 19, 2009 at 4:29 PM. Use this trackback if you're linking this story.

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