[andrewtj]

That's just a tidbit thrown around to soothe those irked by the limit. It's been well over a decade since the last mobile phone was sold that couldn't handle long/concatenated SMS. The reality is that the 140 character limit is just an arbitrary one; one that makes Twitter, Twitter.

[coderdude]

I still can't send text messages over 160 characters to anyone not on my carrier (Verizon) so I'm not sure where you're getting that figure from.

[andrewtj]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatenated_SMS

Perhaps this is another anomaly that Americans have to put up with from their carriers — not being one I wouldn't know.

[ben1040]

Anecdote is not the singular of data, but I have been able to send/receive long messages using Android and iPhone on AT&T.

Just yesterday I even noticed Android's core SMS app is even nice enough to tell you when the message is overflowing into a second SMS, so you know that you and the recipient will get billed for more than one SMS. Which brings me to another idea:

Perhaps the billing issue is more of a concern as well -- receiving concatenated messages certainly would cost more for (American) users not on unlimited SMS plans, and presumably would cost more for Twitter to send out through their gateway?

[coderdude]

That could very well be. We're underprivileged when it comes to mobiles, unfortunately.

[andrewtj]

Just out of curiosity, do US carriers allow you to send inter-carrier MMS and can you transfer your phone number between carriers?

[coderdude]

Yes, they let you send inter-carrier MMS and you can also transfer your number between carriers.