Threads Rolls Out Hashtag Functionality…Without the Hashtag
Threads keeps Threading, now with hashtags (of a sort)
Instagram’s Threads app has been duping Twitter/X in a number of ways, and today it’s adding one more feature that’s been core to the Twitter experience for years: hashtags. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Threads will begin testing the ability to tag topics on Threads to categorize posts by interest or theme. Though users will call up the tags feature using the “#” symbol, it won’t actually display the “#” symbol when the tags are shown. Instead, the tags will appear as clickable blue links.
The test will initially begin in Australia and the Threads team will then iterate on the experience based on user feedback, the company tells TechCrunch. In his announcement, Zuckerberg wrote that more countries will be able to test tags “soon.”
To use the new tags, you’ll tap a new # button in the Threads app or type the symbol using your keyboard followed by text. As you start typing, various tags will appear to help you autocomplete your tag or you can create a new tag from scratch. After you choose the tag and publish your post, anyone can click on the tag to see other related posts on the same topic. In other words, they work just like Twitter’s hashtags but are a bit more elegant as they drop the symbol as the prefix.
Meta is adding one new layer here and it’s a good one. Posts will be limited to a single tag. Insta posts with 40 tags always make me squirm, especially when folks just…make them up. But there’s a reason you see so many posts loaded with so many tags: tag jumpers. Tag jumpers will just slam as many trending tags as they can into a post in hopes catching some momentum. It sucks for users who are actually using the tags to follow a specific topic, though it may hinder those trying to follow an event or, especially, breaking news.
Also unlike X, Threads will only allow one tag on a post at a time — a decision the company likely made to cut down on spam. Often, spammers will stuff a post with many popular and trending tags to get their posts discovered in search. Beyond the spam factor, adding multiple tags to a post has become a somewhat cringey thing to do otherwise, as it appears to be attention-seeking behavior.
Threads: More like Twitter and Insta every day.