The 140 character limit

I see that Twitter has removed the 140 character limit for direct messages. I wish there was a way to extend the limit for the tweets generated as part of "chats". As an observer, I have not found the sessions to be particularly informative. If the assumption is that such ;must be limited to text, it would be helpful if such conversations were not bound by the 140 character limit. The posts are so cryptic when bound by the 140 limit, that too many really offer little information and too much time is wasted attempting to generate a thought within the limit. This has long been, for me, an example of committing to a tool before carefully considering the point of the application. A Twitter chat alternative with an expanded character limit would do a lot to improve the value of these chat sessions.