Twitter used to shorten URLs, but now it doesn't?

November 25, 2014 11:51 AM

Sometimes, mostly due to work circumstances, I'm using Twitter via their website rather than an app on my phone. But when I try to post a link to a news article or blog post, I find that Twitter isn't automatically shortening the URL. Do they not do this any more?

I've found these, but it's definitely not happening for me the way they say it should (maybe they're old and out of date?):

https://support.twitter.com/articles/78124-posting-links-in-a-tweet#
https://support.twitter.com/articles/109623-about-twitter-s-link-service-http-t-co#

posted by maralinn to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

It still shortens. They show the beginning of the unshortened URL for the anchor so maybe you're seeing that.
posted by michaelh at 11:56 AM on November 25, 2014

I find this confusing as well; it seems to show the unshortened URL but only count the # of characters in the shortened version. Then when it posts you see the shortened version.

Are you still seeing the long-form URL?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 12:01 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Twitter was doing this to me the other day. It would show the long version and count all of the characters, saying it was too long. But it stopped. Maybe it is a recurring glitch.
posted by interplanetjanet at 12:02 PM on November 25, 2014

Response by poster: I wish I could upload a screenshot. (Or can I? I'm new to posting.) I see the original, long URL; the excess characters highlighted in pink; and the "tweet" button disabled.
posted by maralinn at 12:04 PM on November 25, 2014

I don't do the social media posts for my department, but my understanding from conversations I've been peripheral to is that Twitter counts all links as 22 characters (regardless of what they look like when composing). This page seems to confirm that.
posted by aught at 12:12 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

That is exactly what I was getting yesterday. Though it started working again later.
posted by interplanetjanet at 12:12 PM on November 25, 2014

> I wish I could upload a screenshot. (Or can I? I'm new to posting.)

You can upload the screenshot to an image host (say, imgur) and post the link to it.
posted by andycyca at 1:39 PM on November 25, 2014

Are you sure you have a space between the last letter of your tweet and the first letter of the URL? Text without the space is 11 characters short, but with the space has 45 extra characters.
posted by desjardins at 10:55 AM on November 26, 2014