Twitter has announced a new feature called Notes, which extends word limit to 2,500 and supports the inclusion of photos, videos, GIFs, and Tweets.

At present, the social media platform limits posts to 280 characters.

In its announcement, Twitter said the test will run for two months and be limited to a small cohort of users in Canada, Ghana, the UK and US.

From Twitters point of view, its a pretty logical move. While the brevity of tweets served it well during its initial growth period, it also prevented the platform from allowing more expansive and nuanced posts. This led many writers to blog within Twitter, but then link to other websites and services where they posted longer pieces.

The new feature aims to keep audiences in the Twitter ecosystem, with readers able to see a headline and access the longer Note by clicking on a link.

It will also work the other way around. Notes will have unique URLs so that people can find them while outside of the Twitter platform. They can then read them whether or not they are logged in to Twitter, and even if they do not have a Twitter account.

Twitter said: “Since the companys earliest days, writers have depended on Twitter to share their work, get noticed, be read, create conversation — everything but the actual writing. With Notes, the goal is to fill in that missing piece and help writers find whatever type of success they desire.”