Hashtags Hidden in Instagram Cross-Posts on Threads

Highlights

• New feature: Threads is now hiding hashtags in re-posts from Instagram behind a “Show hashtags” button.
• Founder’s stance: Adam Mosseri has consistently criticized the necessity of hashtags for boosting post reach.
• Alternative solutions: Threads is exploring topic tags and community features as substitutes for traditional hashtags.
• Search differences: Searching keywords with and without hashtags on Threads yields different results, affecting visibility.

Threads is trying out another way to avoid confusion around hashtags in the app, with re-posts from Instagram that include a lot of tags now hiding them behind a “Show hashtags” CTA on posts.

As you can see in this example, shared by Chris Messina (from a post by Tony Bamber), now, when a user is cross-posting from IG, and they include a heap of hashtags (as is the Instagram way), Threads is hiding them from view, seemingly as a means to discourage hashtag use.

Or maybe just clutter in-stream, but either way, Threads remains opposed to hashtags, as it has been from the start, with the Threads team keen to avoid the rampant spamming of popular tags in order to get more post reach.

Which, according to Meta, doesn’t work like it used to either way.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has repeatedly disparaged the use of hashtags in this respect, saying, basically, that they’re not really needed at all anymore, and definitely won’t help to boost your post reach in any significant way.

On record, here’s an overview of Mosseri’s various remarks on hashtags on Threads, as well as announcements on its alternatives to evolve topic tagging:

• In July 2023, shortly after the launch of the app, Mosseri said that hashtags “come along with a lot of safety and integrity work that I think a lot of people underappreciate,” which is why he wasn’t sure that Threads should have them
• In August 2023, Mosseri said that he was still unsure about adding hashtags on Threads as they could “cause more trouble than they’re worth”
• In October 2023, Mosseri said that hashtags will not “meaningfully change the trajectory” of Threads’ development
• Then in late October, Threads rolled out topic tags, which enable users to add one topic to each update, in order to “make it easier for others to find and join in on the conversation”

So, to be clear, Mosseri (who, it’s also worth noting, is no longer in charge of Threads) doesn’t see much potential for hashtags, at least with respect to how a lot of people have used them in the past in increasing post reach.

But Threads is still trying to work out a better alternative, with its latest Communities feature being another experiment in helping to guide topic-based discussion in the app.

Yet, at the same time, Threads is also dealing with legacy approaches to social media, with people still adding hashtags even though they’re not clickable in the app (or cross-posting from IG, as in this latest example).

Technically, any keyword in a post on Threads is searchable, whether it includes the # marker or not, which should mean that searching for any term should produce the same results, with or without the hashtag symbol.

But it doesn’t.

For example, if you search for “basketball” on Threads, or “#basketball,” then sort by “Recent,” the results are significantly different:

Technically, these should produce the same results, based on straight keyword-matching. But they don’t, which means that, really, it depends on how people are searching for your topic of focus as to whether you should be adding hashtags or not.

Because even if they aren’t clickable, if the search results displayed for each are different, then the specifics may matter for linking into relevant queries.

And we don’t have any insight into how people are searching on Threads, because Threads doesn’t share data on keywords and/or search trends. That might be another element for Threads to add to its Insights section, with data showing the keywords that people clicked on that led them to your post or account.

Maybe that would help to clarify whether hashtags are needed, but technically, Threads is saying that you don’t need the # marker, and that you should instead be focused on including the most relevant topic tag on each of your updates, or posting to relevant communities, to reach the right audience.