Do You Have Something Long to Say On Facebook?

[Anthony Bouchard]

Facebook is increasing their status update character limit.

Are you an avid Facebook user? Chances are most of you are and in that you know a lot of Facebook users. Have you ever tried to post something and it was too long to post? Well here's the synopsis: you talk too much.

Just kidding; the solution was actually brought up by Facebook themselves and they've decided to increase the limit of characters that you can have in a status update. The amount of characters that you can have now is quite astonishing. Twitter, like SMS only allows 140 characters per Tweet while SMS allows 160. There are ways around the limits like using TwitLonger or Pastie to get your point across, but generally that seems like an inconvenient method. If you're a Facebook user and you want to post more than was allowed, you could use something like Pastie to increase the length of your allowed characters.

Now, Facebook is increasing the character count to an amazing 63,206 characters. That's a lot of characters. I can't even remember the last time that I needed that many characters. In fact, I don't think any essay that I have ever written has reached that many characters, and I'm one who likes to talk a lot in essays. Google+ allows 100,000 character spaces, as Redmond Pie reports.

So why did Facebook choose to allow users to have up to 63,206 characters in their status updates? Bob Baldwin is a Facebook employee and he explains his reasoning in the following explanation:

I set the exact limit to something nerdy. Facebook … Face Boo K … hex(FACE) – K … 64206 – 1000 = 63206 :-) .

Get your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, and PC keyboards ready, let's see who types the first 63,206 message on Facebook! Let's make it an Apple device to break the record!

Grab Facebook from the Apple App Store today from this link if you don't have it already.

Sources: Redmond Pie

[KraXik]

I set the exact limit to something nerdy. Facebook … Face Boo K … hex(FACE) – K … 64206 – 1000 = 63206 :-)

Can someone explain this please? I understand that he uses HEX code to get 64206 but why does he ignore 'boo' and subtract the 'k'? Why not add the 'k'?

[NakedFaerie]

I found that out yesterday when I posted an oversize post and it didn't complain about the size.

BTW ADMINS. You cant reply when your in MOBILE MODE. (Change it at the bottom)
I've tried having that mode on the PC browser as its easier to read and it wont let me click the button to reply.
And today I tried it on the iPhone and it again refuses to let me reply. The button does nothing.
And when I goto DEFAULT MODE so I can add a comment the keyboard keeps turning off straight away so if I'm lucky enough I can type 1 letter at a time.
So if you cant use it on the PC or the iPhone how much more mobile do I have to be?

[Sniper488]

But the bad thing is now they've also changed the number of characters you can post when posting a picture. It won't allow you to see the whole post like you used to. : (

[Mr. Russian]

yesterday, i wrote a 1,748 word essay and it was only 10,600 characters with spaces and 8,866 characters without spaces

[The Maestro]

SMS limits to 160 characters where did 140 come from

[DaLsim]

Maybe someone glue to facebook/sms? Like wait for santa for the gift they really want? Over use an abuse...

[teddybossy]

Can someone explain this please? I understand that he uses HEX code to get 64206 but why does he ignore 'boo' and subtract the 'k'? Why not add the 'k'?

boo as dislike or disapproval, therefore, subtract? just a thought.