How we measure where text gets cut
Last updated 27 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 38 screens: 14 cut by width, the rest by characters.
| Label | Meaning | Screens |
|---|---|---|
| Official limit | The platform publishes the limit. We link the page. | 17 |
| 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. | 2 |
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.
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