Auto URL Shortening Built-In in Twitter

With only 140 characters allowed in Twitter, every single character in tweeting is so precious to express the emotions and feelings adequately. Hence, URL shortening is an important feature in tweeting that allows tweeters to share URLs in their tweets. Users have been relying on third-party shortening services in the past such as Bit.ly and Goo.gl to shorten the URLs into a length that can fit nicely into a tweet. Twitter has finally launched its URL shortening service where URL will be shortened to 19 characters automatically!

In order to minimize the occurrence of malicious URLs in tweets, the links are checked against a list of potential malicious sites in real time when user enters a URL for conversion and warning is flagged accordingly. Furthermore, the original URL is also showed as a shortened version where people who see the tweet will know the site that they are heading to. Alternatively, users can still continue to use their favorite third party shortening service as they wish.

The auto URL shortening feature in Twitter is really simple and instant. Here’s the steps to switch to Twitter built-in URL shorting instead using third-party URL shortener. There is no configuration required to enable or turn on the feature – just start tweeting to enjoy it:

1. Type/Paste the long URL into the Tweet box
2. A message appears that inform user that the link will be shortened

   

3. The shortened version of the original URL is displayed in the tweet once the tweet is posted!

Note that Twitter is currently in the progress of rolling out the feature to everyone and just give it some time if you are not seeing the feature right now. Happy tweeting!