How we measure where text gets cut
Last updated 29 September 2026
Screens cut text in one of two ways: by a character count (Amazon titles, Google Ads, app stores) or by rendered width (inboxes, search results, lock screens). Truncly handles each the way the platform does.
Where each number comes from
Every screen is labelled with one of four sources. Today 45 screens: 14 cut by width, the rest by characters.
| Label | Meaning | Screens |
|---|---|---|
| Official limit | The platform publishes the limit. We link the page. | 22 |
| Measured on devices | Measured on real devices in a named third-party test. We link the test. | 18 |
| Platform advice | The platform recommends a length but doesn’t enforce it. | 1 |
| Truncly model | Our own model of a typical device layout, explained on the screen’s page. | 4 |
Width, not characters
For width-based screens, Truncly lays your text out with a font that has the same letter widths as the one on the device, at the size and line width that screen uses, and finds the last word that fits.
Where a platform font can’t be used, we use an open font with matching or close metrics: Arimo is metric-compatible with Arial (Google results), Roboto is the Android and Gmail font, and Inter stands in for Apple’s and Microsoft’s system fonts. Each box is calibrated so everyday text shows the same number of characters the cited device test saw.
- Arial (Arimo): Arial (Google Search results)
- Roboto: Android, Gmail
- SF Pro / Segoe (Inter): iPhone, Mac and Outlook system fonts
How characters are counted
- Characters are counted the way people see them: an emoji or an accented letter is one character, not two or seven.
- X counts every link it recognises as 23 and emoji or Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters as 2. Google Ads counts double-width characters as 2.
- SMS uses the GSM 7-bit alphabet: 160 characters per message, 153 per part when split. One character outside it switches the whole message to Unicode: 70, or 67 per part.
Labels and warnings
- Truncly looks for the labels people add to paid posts: #ad, Ad, Sponsored and Paid partnership (United States); Ad and #ad (United Kingdom); Anzeige and Werbung (Germany); publicité and collaboration commerciale (France).
- It also looks for the FCA risk warnings for restricted mass market investments, with the standard and shortened wording from the FCA Handbook, COBS 4.12A.11R. Only the exact wording is recognised, so a warning with changed words isn’t found and isn’t passed as fine.
- On social screens, a label after the “more” cut is flagged for each device, and a risk warning has to show in full. One click moves a label to the start.
- This helps you check. It isn’t legal advice, and Truncly can’t know whether a post needs a label.
Screens whose cut point isn’t published
These two screens have no cut point published by the platform, and we haven’t found a named device test we can link. They are our estimate, marked as modeled, and we’ll change them when a source appears.
- TikTok caption (before “more”): TikTok doesn’t publish where the feed cuts a caption. Truncly assumes about 90 characters on a phone before “more”, which is an estimate, not an official number.
- YouTube description (before “more”): A description can be up to 5,000 characters. YouTube says viewers see the first lines first, but doesn’t say how many characters that is. Truncly assumes about 100 before “…more”, which is an estimate, not an official number.
Where the newer screens come from
These screens were added most recently. Each one shows its source below and on its own limits page, with the day we last checked it. Where we could only read a source second-hand, or the limit is our own estimate, we say so.
| Screen | Label | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok caption (before “more”) | Truncly model | Our estimate. TikTok doesn’t publish where the feed cuts a caption, so this is marked as modeled. TikTok caption limit |
| YouTube description (before “more”) | Truncly model | Our estimate. YouTube says viewers see the first lines first but not how many characters that is, so this is marked as modeled. YouTube Help: tips for video descriptions |
| WhatsApp template header | Official limit | Meta’s message template documentation, read on the page itself. Meta: WhatsApp message template components |
| WhatsApp template message | Official limit | Meta’s message template documentation, read on the page itself. Meta: WhatsApp message template components |
| WhatsApp template footer | Official limit | Meta’s message template documentation, read on the page itself. Meta: WhatsApp message template components |
| WhatsApp template button | Official limit | Meta’s message template documentation, read on the page itself. Meta: WhatsApp message template components |
| TikTok Shop product title | Official limit | Second-hand. TikTok’s US Seller Center guidance says 25 to 255 characters and recommends 40 to 150, but we could only read it through page summaries. Check the number in your own country’s Seller Center. TikTok Shop Seller Center: Product Detail Pages & Listing Quality Guidelines (US) |
What our numbers can’t know
- Phones differ. Width-based limits are for a typical phone at the default text size; larger text or a narrower phone shows less.
- Platforms change layouts without notice. Each screen shows the day we last reviewed it; when a platform changes, we update the screen and the date.
- Some platforms rewrite what you send: Google may show a different title or description, and on iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Mail can show an AI summary instead of your preview text.
- Truncly shows how your text fits. It can’t promise how a platform will rank or display it.
Spotted a wrong limit?
Email us with a screenshot and the device or page you saw it on. We check every report and update the screen if we got it wrong. hello@truncly.app · See every limit