Threads Finally Gets Hashtags But Without #

Threads, Meta’s X rival, is adding another common feature – hashtags – to the platform but with a twist. According to Instagram head Adam Mossari, the twist focuses “less on engagement hacking” and more on community building.

“Threads Update. The ability to tag a topic on your post is now rolling out globally so you can categorise your posts and make it easier for others to find and join in on the conversation. Try it out and let us know your feedback,” Mosseri said in a post on the platform.

How Threads Tags Are Different

On X (formerly Twitter), and even Instagram and Facebook, users have to put ‘#’ in front of a word and it shows in the post but Tags do not show this symbol.

When users want to compose a post Threads, they can start a tag by tapping the ‘#’ symbol and then typing the word/topic. However, instead of just being limited to a word, such as “#threads”, users can type out a whole phrase with spaces.

For example, users can write “#threads instagram and facebook” without having to include ‘#’ in each word. Additionally, users can also add special characters, according to Mosseri, like, “#threads & Instagram”. However, there is one limitation – users can only make one tag per post.

“With tags we're trying something simple and slightly new. No # marks, support for multiple words, *only one* tag per post, and the tag view *is* the search view. The hope is this design focuses tags more on communities and less on engagement hacking, and does so while keeping Threads simple and easy to use. We'll see how it goes…” Mosseri said.

The feature seems a welcome change from traditional tagging as, unlike traditional hashtags which are sometimes too cumbersome to read, it makes reading tags easy. However, one tag per post may hit the discoverability of content. Multiple hashtags help in the discoverability of a video, photo or post.

 

December 08, 2023