Why so many URLs are suddenly unclickable on Twitter

UPDATE: As of late Tuesday August 16, some apps, notably HootSuite, have begun fixing this problem.

You may have begun noticing many Tweets with links that are missing the http:// and that are NOT clickable. This is not strictly due to some Twitter bug, it is because people and applications have not yet adapted to Twitter’s new way of displaying URLs.

Because Twitter now removes the http:// from links, if you use a method that copies one tweet into another (such as to prepare to retweet with a comment) you have to type in the http:// by hand yourself.

What the problem is

Much of the time, URLs now display without an http:// visible, but ARE still clickable. However, many people have been copying what is displayed in one tweet into another (some apps do this for you automatically, and will need to update their method). This results in tweets that both have no http:// and are NOT clickable.

Most apps that use “classic” retweet so as to allow you comment simply copy the text of one tweet into a new Tweet, adding only some retweet syntax (such as “RT @user: …”).

What changes to expect

This is a huge problem. It’s hard for an app to figure out where to add the http:// now that most tweets don’t display it. So don’t count on your favorite app solving the problem right away. There are a couple of approaches they could take, but I suspect the developers now in communication with Twitter about the problem will figure out a standard solution soon.

What you can do now

Whether you or your app copied a tweet into another tweet, use the “copy link” function of your browser (here’s how) to grab the link from the source tweet if you don’t want to manually type in the http:// yourself.

However, in some cases copying the text of the link will give you a full URL that begins with http://t.co/… If so, you won’t have to add the http:// yourself.

If you want to copy the exact text, but are getting a t.co link that you don’t want (maybe you want to keep the analytics of a different URL service) copy both some text above and below the tweet that you want to copy from. This will bypass your browser’s attempt to put the hidden t.co link onto your clipboard when you copy.

Why Twitter has made this change

Twitter has begun to take every URL shared on Twitter and convert it into a t.co link through Twitter’s infrastructure. Twitter’s t.co URL wrapper now “wraps” all URLs 19 characters long and greater.

Twitter’s URL simply redirects to whatever URL was used, so, for example, if you use an URL that gives you analytics, you still get them. But now your referer is t.co—e.g. it shows up in Google Analytics as “t.co / referral”) The actual website is checked against a list of harmful sites, so that bad links can be blocked before you get a chance to click on them. This also gives Twitter detailed information on how links are used and clicked on that they can use in many ways.