Twitter creates @LongDMBot so developers can test sending and receiving long DMs in their apps

By now you’ve probably heard that Twitter will be lifting its 140 character restriction on Direct Messages (DMs) this month. Today, the company has published a note letting developers know that there’s a tool they can use to test sending and receiving long messages in their apps.

Meet @LongDMBot, an account created by Twitter that is available just for registered developers. How it works is that developers following the account can send it long DMs and it will reply back with the same text. If you’re not a developer, you’ll still be able to send messages to the account, but they’ll be limited to 140 characters.

In June, the company released an update to both its REST and Streaming APIs in order to prepare the horde of third-party apps for this significant change. But while developers were able to integrate this new code, there was no way for them to really test to see if their efforts were successful. The @LongDMBot account is the only solution for developers — no other account will provide the needed feedback.

There’s no specific date when Twitter will lift the 140 character limit on DMs, allowing users to send messages of up to 10,000 characters. Non-developers will have to wait until that time to see what all the fuss is about.