TwitterKit iOS SDK counting image and URL against character count - ios

Question

I am using the latest version of TwitterKit (2.5), and when I attempt to share a Tweet with an image and URL, the TWTRComposer is counting them against the character count. Twitter is supposed to no longer count media against the character count, and in fact I am able to post the exact same tweet from the web that I cannot post in-app (app says it is too long).
In my current use case, my actual tweet text is 100 characters. With an image and URL, TWTRComposer is showing that I am 8 characters over the limit. Yet, I can post this exact same Tweet with the exact same content from Chrome with 16 characters to spare.
Is this a known bug?
Code snippet:
func didTapShareToTwitter() {
// Configure composer
let composer = TWTRComposer()
composer.setText(composerText)
composer.setURL(shareURL)
if shareImageURL != nil {
if let imageData = NSData(contentsOfURL: shareImageURL!) {
composer.setImage(UIImage(data: imageData))
}
}
// Present composer
composer.showFromViewController(self) { result in
if (result == TWTRComposerResult.Cancelled) {
log("Tweet composition cancelled.")
}
else {
log("Sending tweet...")
}
}
}

Answer 1

Looks like this an iOS system-level bug, not necessarily the Twitter SDK. The TWTRComposer is actually just a wrapper around the built-in iOS sharing view controller, SLComposeViewController.
The iOS SLComposeViewController still counts attached URLs and images against the total Twitter character limit (140) as of the latest iOS release, 10.1. Most likely, Apple just hasn’t updated their OS code since Twitter made the move to not count images and URLs against the character limit earlier this year.
After doing some testing, I have come to the following conclusion:
On iOS, a URL counts as 23 characters no matter original length of
the URL is.
On iOS, an image counts as 23 characters no matter what
size it is.
Therefore, with an image and URL, we have only 94 characters
available on iOS per Tweet. And there’s nothing that can be done
about it unless Twitter updates their SDK or Apple updates
SLComposeViewController.