Dive Brief:

• Twitter was full of announcements Thursday: first, revealing it is lifting the 140-character limit for its direct messages starting in July. This news was quickly eclipsed by news that CEO Dick Costolo will be stepping down, also in July.
• Currently, both public and private messages on the micro-blogging site are fixed to 140 characters, and as it stands, public tweets will still be under that restriction, while users can now look forward to being more wordy in direct messages.
• The change will come sometime in July, but no specific date has been set as of yet. 

Dive Insight: 

Direct messaging on Twitter has experienced an evolution in recent times. Most recently, Twitter opened up the direct messaging feature between any two users -- lifting the requirement that both parties follow each other. While some worried this would invite spam, it also opened opportunities for brands to provide customer service. That customer service, some argue, can only be improved by allowing a free flow of characters. 

Earlier in the week, Twitter also added a new ad tool, dubbed "installed app category targeting," that allows advertisers to target users based on the apps they have downloaded. Twitter has been steadily adding features to improve marketers' experience on the site, including the launch of the Official Partner Program to offer third-party help to businesses leveraging tools on the social network.