The world’s longest message is an incredible feat of communication. While it’s impossible to definitively declare one message as being the longest, there are a few contenders that have made their mark on history.
The first message to be considered is the longest telegram ever sent. On February 12th, 2004, the Danish telecommunications company TDC sent a telegram of 2,088,049 characters (or 3,867 words) between its two headquarters in Copenhagen and Aalborg. This message was sent as a way to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary. In order to send the telegram, TDC had to pay a massive fee of $8,000, a testament to the sheer size of the message.
Another contender for the world’s longest message is the message sent by a group of students from the University of Twente in the Netherlands. In 2005, the group sent a message of 4,000,000 characters (or 7,142 words), which was transmitted as a series of emails from the university’s computer network. The message was sent to celebrate the university’s 25th anniversary and the students’ success in creating a new computer network.
The most recent contender for the world’s longest message is the Twitter tweet sent by the user @longesttweet. On August 12th, 2018, the user sent a tweet of 6,697 characters (or 1,140 words), which was the longest tweet ever sent at the time. The message was a tribute to the user’s grandmother, who had passed away earlier that year.
The world’s longest message may never be definitively declared, as new contenders are constantly emerging. However, these three messages demonstrate the incredible potential of communication and the lengths people will go to in order to share their messages with the world.
