December, 2017 Google announced they had increased the snippet length to over 300 characters. That was short lived because five months later Google shortens snippet length.
@dannysullivan, who is Google’s public @searchliaison, confirmed this around noon on May 14, 2018 via twitter. “Our search snippets are now shorter on average than in recent weeks, though slightly longer than before a change we made last December. There is no fixed length for snippets. Length varies based on what our systems deem to be most useful.”
Our search snippets are now shorter on average than in recent weeks, though slightly longer than before a change we made last December. There is no fixed length for snippets. Length varies based on what our systems deem to be most useful.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 14, 2018
The length of snippets is dynamic. We’re not stating a maximum length because of this.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 14, 2018
RankRanger tracker tool shows the count is down to 160 or so characters for desktop:
RankRanger tracker tool shows the count is down to 160 or so characters for mobile:
Did you waste a lot of valuable time updating our SEO with longer meta descriptions? According to Google, you did not. Most of the snippets are dynamic and are not even pulled from your meta descriptions anyway.