Why do formatted (bold, italic) characters count as two on Twitter/X?
When using bold or italic text on Twitter/X, you might notice that these characters count as two instead of one, similar to emojis.
You can test this by copying the text from Publer on X or by using this tool.
Twitter/X’s API does not support bold or italic text directly. The only way to make text bold/italic is with the help of special Unicode characters. When you hover over the "B"/Bold or "I"/Italic icons in the text editor, you will see a pop-up indicating the use of these characters.
These Unicode bold/italic characters are more complex and typically require more than one byte for storage, causing them to count as 2 characters each.
This is a temporary solution because Twitter/X’s API doesn’t support bold or italic text. This workaround gives you more formatting options until the platforms' API supports it directly.
Learn more on how to format text here.
Written by: Brikena Cani
You can test this by copying the text from Publer on X or by using this tool.
Why do formatted characters count as two on Twitter?
Twitter/X’s API does not support bold or italic text directly. The only way to make text bold/italic is with the help of special Unicode characters. When you hover over the "B"/Bold or "I"/Italic icons in the text editor, you will see a pop-up indicating the use of these characters.
These Unicode bold/italic characters are more complex and typically require more than one byte for storage, causing them to count as 2 characters each.
This is a temporary solution because Twitter/X’s API doesn’t support bold or italic text. This workaround gives you more formatting options until the platforms' API supports it directly.
Learn more on how to format text here.
Written by: Brikena Cani
Updated on: 02/10/2024
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