Google Search Console has a Google News specific article content error named “Article too short.” In that section, it offers a recommendation to “make sure your articles have more than 80 words.” Google’s Danny Sullivan said they may remove that reference because “people shouldn’t be stressing about word count,” he said on Twitter.

Here is a screenshot:

As Google said numerous times, word count is not a ranking factor and this reference is confusing based on previous Google advice. So Danny Sullivan said Google may remove this reference.

Here is the context around this confusion:

An article that is 80 words is even short for my standards, and I write short.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: This whole article too short section has now been removed.