More networking – contact requests now longer than ever

“Keep it brief” – how often have we heard that before?  With the expansion of digital communications, the urge to be succinct still remains very much in fashion. It seems as though the trend is moving towards shorter communiqués in media of all types, from a quick, 160-character text message to a tweet, curbed at 140 characters. XING contact requests, while never quite that short for Premium members, have nevertheless required brevity, limiting networkers to 300 characters. That is, up until now.

Many of you have mentioned this limitation in UserVoice, and requested you be given more room to explain your contact requests in more detail. After all, members explained, although some contacts are easy to sum up in one or two succinct sentences, there are others that require more space.

600 characters for your contact requests

Since you asked for it, we’ve delivered it: Now Premium Members have twice as much room to type in their contact requests. This improvement is a direct consequence of your request, and a further improvement to our service to members.

We decided it would be best to keep a character limit for initial contact requests, as business today is fast-moving, and a well-focused request is still worthwhile. We tried to strike a balance here between the wishes of active networkers who wanted to tell a bit more about themselves when expanding their network, and members receiving these requests, who undoubtedly can appreciate the many virtues of brevity. Naturally, all other messages you write on XING are not limited in length.

The improvement process we’ve been using so far – starting with user feedback and making developments from there – will continue here at XING. You’re sure to hear more about upcoming features and improvements right here, on the “Wednesday Release Flash”!