Instagram’s Threads app has been emulating various Twitter features and is now introducing a key Twitter functionality: hashtags.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has announced the testing phase for tagging topics in Threads, which will allow users to organize posts by interest or theme.
When using these tags, indicated by the “#” symbol, they will not display the symbol but will instead show up as clickable blue links.
The trial phase is starting in Australia, with the Threads team planning to refine the experience based on user feedback, as reported by TechCrunch. Zuckerberg mentioned that the feature will be available for testing in more countries soon.
Users can access these new tags by pressing a designated # button in the Threads app or by typing the symbol and text on their keyboard. As you type, the app will suggest existing tags or let you create a new one.
Once a tag is selected and the post is published, it can be clicked to view other related posts. This feature is similar to Twitter’s hashtags but differs by omitting the actual hashtag symbol.
Threads are limiting posts to a single tag, likely to reduce spam, as spammers often use multiple popular tags to increase their post visibility.
This restriction, however, could be limiting for users wanting to tag posts with multiple relevant hashtags, especially for events with various associated hashtags or those wishing to combine tags for more specific searches.
The introduction of this feature, which was spotted earlier in development, has sparked debate about the relevance of hashtags in modern social networking.
Hashtags were originally proposed by tech expert Chris Messina in a 2007 tweet as a method for grouping topics, trends, and events. Twitter then incorporated this feature, followed by other social platforms.
