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Caption preview: where each network folds your text

Write a caption, pick a network, and see it on a phone the way the Preflight composer draws it — with the fold Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube put after the first lines, and the characters past each network's limit marked.

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Network

Above the fold on Instagram

226 / 2,200

Second night added — same lineup, doors 19:00, tickets in the bio. There will not be a third, so if you were waiting for a si …more101 more characters hidden

About 125 characters, or the first line break, then “…more”.

The verdict comes from Preflight's validator once you type or choose a file.

9:41

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Your account Second night added — same lineup, doors 19:00, tickets in the bio. There will not be a third, so if you were waiting for a si

226 / 2,200Hashtags: 2 / 30

Where each network folds

Network	Shown before “more”	Limit	How it folds
YouTube	~157	5,000	The title is cut at 100 characters; the description shows about 157 characters above “...more”.
TikTok	~100	2,200	Roughly one line, about 100 characters, over the video, then “more”.
Instagram	~125	2,200	About 125 characters, or the first line break, then “…more”.
Facebook	~477	63,206	About 477 characters on mobile, then “See more”.
Threads	whole post	500	No fold: a Threads post is shown whole, up to its 500 characters.
LinkedIn	~210	3,000	About 210 characters (three lines) on desktop, about 140 on the app, then “…see more”.
Pinterest	~100	800	The first line becomes the title and is cut at 100 characters; the description sits below the pin.
Bluesky	whole post	300	No fold: 300 characters is short enough to show in full.
Mastodon	whole post	500	No fold: a 500-character post is shown whole; a content warning hides it instead.
Telegram	whole post	1,024	No fold: the message is shown in full, up to 1,024 characters on a photo or video.
Discord	whole post	2,000	No fold: a message is shown in full, up to 2,000 characters.
Tumblr	whole post	250,000	No fold on the dashboard; very long posts get a “Keep reading” cut set by the author.

The fold is not the limit

A character limit says how much a network will take; the fold says how much a reader will see without doing anything. The two are far apart. Instagram takes 2,200 characters and shows about 125 in the feed before “…more”. LinkedIn takes 3,000 and shows about 210 on desktop, 140 on the phone, before “…see more”. Facebook takes 63,206 and shows roughly 477 on mobile. TikTok writes the caption over the video and folds it after about one line. YouTube cuts the title at 100 characters and shows about 157 characters of the description above “...more”. On every one of these a line break folds the text early, which is why a caption that opens with a short line and a blank line shows nothing but that line.

The networks with short limits have no fold at all. Threads shows its 500 characters whole, Bluesky its 300, Mastodon its 500, Telegram its 1,024 on a photo, Discord its 2,000. On those the only cut is the limit itself, and past it the post is refused rather than shortened — the phone preview marks those characters in red, the way the Preflight composer does.

Writing for the fold

Since the first 125 characters are the whole post for most Instagram readers, they have to carry the point and the reason to tap: the hook, not the hashtags. Hashtags and @mentions belong at the end, below the fold, where they do their work for the algorithm without taking the reader's first glance. On LinkedIn the three visible lines are the headline of the post; a question or a claim that is only finished behind “see more” is what earns the tap. On YouTube the first line of the description is shown under the title in search, so a link there is seen and a link in line six is not.

The phone on this page is the composer's own preview component, fed one caption and one network. It does not invent likes or a name; it shows the text where the network puts it and marks what the network would refuse. The limits in the table come from Preflight's capability sheet and the verdict from its validator, so what passes here passes when scheduled. The full list of each network's rules is on the network limits page, and the length itself is counted on the character counter.

Questions

Previews

Where does Instagram cut a caption with “…more”?

In the feed, after roughly 125 characters or at the first line break, whichever comes first; the whole caption is there behind the tap. On the post page and in the app's detail view it shows more. The first sentence is what most readers ever see, so it has to carry the point on its own.

How much of a LinkedIn post shows before “…see more”?

About 210 characters, or three lines, on desktop and about 140 on the app — and a line break ends the visible part early. Facebook shows about 477 characters on mobile before “See more”. Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon show the whole post, since 500 or 300 characters fits on a screen.

Is the phone the same as the one in the Preflight composer?

Yes — the same component, fed your caption and one network at a time. It marks the characters past the network's limit the way the composer does, and the fold line above it shows what a reader sees without tapping. The verdict line underneath comes from Preflight's validator, so a caption that is red here would be refused when scheduled.

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