Twitter is changing so you can make the most of your 140 characters

Media attachments: When you add attachments like photos, GIFs, videos, polls, or Quote Tweets, that media will no longer count as characters within your Tweet.

Replies: When replying to a Tweet, @names will no longer count toward the 140-character count.

Twitter is set to undergo a major change to the way the 140 character limit is calculated, with the aim to avoid clogging up messages with usernames and media.