Twitter just made a huge change to one of its core features

Everything on Twitter has always been limited to 140 characters. It's a fundamental restriction that's made the social network unique from its inception. But now things are changing.

There are two kinds of ways you can communicate on Twitter: public tweets that anyone who follows you can see, and private direct messages to specific accounts.

Starting in July, Twitter will remove the 140 character restriction for direct messages.

Twitter Product Manager Sachin Agarwal announced the change today in a message on the company's website for developers.

Does this mean regular tweets will soon be more than 140 characters? According to Agarwal, no changes are planned for removing the character limit elsewhere.

Still, it's a curious change to the way Twitter has always worked. Group direct messages were introduced earlier this year, which allow multiple people to have a private conversation.

We've reached out to Twitter to see what the new character limit for DMs will be.