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Main question: Is there a character limit on Facebook private/direct messages?

Does this differ when submitting a message on a mobile device as opposed to a regular desktop browser - or on the message page as opposed to the chat window that appears in the corner of the screen?

What happens if a message is too long (i.e. is there any kind of a notification, or does it get split up)?

I've seen some conflicting but limited responses to this question online (though most on Stack Overflow seem to apply to APIs/applications, not regular usage), so just looking for some up-to-date clarification at the tail-end of 2014. I'm NOT asking this question in relation to comments or wall posts.

2 Answers 2

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Is there a character limit on Facebook private/direct messages?

The limit is 20,000 characters.

Does this differ when submitting a message on a mobile device as opposed to a regular desktop browser - or on the message page as opposed to the chat window that appears in the corner of the screen?

This is either something only a Facebook engineer will know or someone with a lot of time on their hands to test every scenario, mobile device and browser out there. It's a safe assumption to say no.

What happens if a message is too long (i.e. is there any kind of a notification, or does it get split up)?

If the message is too long, it will not send, and an error message will appear.

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    Just for curiosity - do you have a source for that, and how you discovered it? I just tested it and it's correct Jun 19, 2018 at 11:04
  • @arieljannai Facebook documentation: Must be UTF-8 and has a 2000 character.
    – thyu
    Aug 10, 2019 at 7:27
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I used my phone to send a message into a group chat, the character limit was 5000 characters, i presume that is because of the fact that it was via mobile + it was being sent to a group - multiple people.

But to be honest there shouldn't be a reason for most to get to that limit since you can write an essay with that many words - which is exactly how i found it.

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