Last week, The Verge reported that twitter was going to roll out an update that would change what makes up the 140-character count. Like clockwork, Twitter has officially announced (via Twitter) that it has indeed begun rolling out these changes. @Usernames, photos, videos, GIFs, Vines, polls, and quote tweets will no longer count against your 140 character limit, giving users a little more room to work with when interacting with others or posting media on the micro-blogging site. It doesn't say anything about links, however. Perhaps links won't receive the same treatment as these other...
Source: http://www.gsmarena.com/twitter_rolling_out_new_feature_usernames_gifs_and_media_dont_count_against_character_limit-news-20594.php
