One of Twitter’s strengths is that it encourages brevity. Its 280-character limit (until recently, only 140) forces users to keep their messages to their core. It keeps us concise and clear.
It also comes across as a limitation. Which is why we see people posting screenshots of longer works (such as celebrity public apologies) as a way to post longer works.
However, another way to post longer works is through Twitter thread. Until recently, this involved posting a tweet, replying to that tweet, then replying to the second tweet, then the third tweet, and so on, until you were done. This was a clever workaround actually, because it increases reach of your thread in general because with multiple tweets, you have multiple entry points for the thread, which means multiple points to be retweeted, liked, and commented on. It also allows followers to respond to specific parts of your thread, unlike Facebook, which requires you to comment on someone’s entire post.
The downside—until recently—was that if you had a long Twitter thread, it would take a while to post it all. This meant Twitter followers following it in real time had to wait for you to post everything or ended up missing out on parts of the thread.
That all changed recently, when Twitter introduced a native tool for creating Twitter threads. It allows you to compose the entire thread, then post it all at once after you’re ready. And it’s super easy.
Here’s how to create a Twitter thread (using a desktop browser):
1. Click on the compose box. In this screenshot, I’m using the timeline, but you can do it from your profile, too.
2. Type out the first tweet in your thread, then click on the plus sign beside the “Tweet” button.
3. Compose your second tweet of the thread. (You can add images, GIFs, polls, locations, etc to each tweet in the thread individually.) Click on the plus sign, and repeat.
4. When you’re ready, click on the “Tweet all” button.
That’s it! Just four steps.
Keep in mind though that the thread will take a while to post, especially if you have lots of images, if the tweets are wordy, or if you have lots of tweets. Don’t exit out of your screen until everything has posted though, or you might lose your entire thread.
Bonus tip: Write your thread in advance using word processing software (such as Google Docs) or a note taking app. If you do encounter an error, at least you won’t lose all your text.
As I mentioned, this is how to do it using a desktop browser, but the process on mobile is similar.
Have a Twitter question? Ask it in the comments below.
