Twitter is giving all of its users the ability to post 280-character tweets, double the length of the 140-character limit that has defined the social network since its inception.

The company provoked a fierce backlash from its famously vocal user base when it started to test the change in September.

Some users said the change was a sign that Twitter had lost its way and complained that it would ruin the essence of the microblogging service - its brevity.

But Twitter said its experiment with 280 characters had shown that people are not abusing the feature. It said those who had access to longer tweets only went past the original 140-character limit 5 per cent of the time, and only past 190 characters 2 per cent of the time.

It added that those who had the limit during the test spent more time on Twitter, and received more likes and retweets.

Only 2 per cent of tweets used up the full 280 characters, against 9 per cent of tweets that currently spend all 140, suggesting the new limit will be much less of a bottleneck.