by Jamie Donaldson, vice president - communications 21 & Carter Brown, director - communications 21

Once upon a time, hashtags were a fast-track strategy to Instagram fame. A sprinkle of #ThrowbackThursday here, a dash of #ManCrushMonday there (for the record, some in the c21 office are still fans of this one) and BOOM… the likes started rolling in. Or at least that was the hope. But update by update, starting around 2024, platforms began making big changes to how hashtags work, leaving us questioning if hashtags still matter in 2026.

So, do they still matter? Good news is yes. Bad news, their role is diminished – like a paper map on a road trip. Relevant hashtags can still support search, connect related content and help people find a niche conversation. They aren’t a magic addition for more reach any longer. Here’s a look at what changed and how to adjust your strategy — because it’s not 2012 anymore.

A Brief History of Changes to Hashtags Since 2024

Instagram and LinkedIn stop letting users follow hashtags

In late 2024, Instagram retired the ability to follow hashtags, signaling a significant shift in how content is discovered on the platform. What’s changed, you ask? Enter Instagram's AI-driven algorithm. In 2025, the platform began prioritizing content based on user engagement patterns rather than hashtag usage. This means that the quality of your content and how your audience interacts with it — likes, shares, saves and comments — now plays a more critical role in determining who sees your Instagram posts.

LinkedIn also stopped allowing users to follow hashtags in late 2024, driven by a more context-driven algorithm and broader understanding of each post. Suddenly their hashtag feeds were gone in 2025. And remember topical hashtags on profiles? Gone too. Just like Instagram, LinkedIn’s AI-powered content recommendations use the entire context of a post to recommend it to other users.

Instagram, Threads, TikTok and YouTube restrict the number of hashtags you can add to a post

The days of copying and pasting 25 hashtags into your Instagram caption are also over. In late 2025, Instagram announced it would limit posts to a maximum of five hashtags.

Meta-owned Threads doesn’t even allow hashtags, but Threads lets users include one topic tag to each update to make discovery easier for users.

TikTok began limiting posts to a five-hashtag limit in 2025.

And YouTube? If a video contains more than 15 hashtags in the title and description, it ignores all the hashtags, which can reduce your video’s visibility in hashtag searches.

Why Did Social Media Platforms Change the Job of Hashtags?

Hashtags used to serve a more important categorization function than they now do. Platforms have more ways to understand content and audience interests than a list of labels supplied by the person posting. Instead of relying on self-categorizing with hashtags, the social networks’ algorithms automatically scan your video captions, video frames and transcribe audio along with reading the text caption on your post. The platforms already know what your post is about (or have a really good idea) so there’s little point in adding generic hashtags. The social networks aren’t using hashtags to figure out who to recommend a post to. Not anymore.

A boost in a post’s feed distribution is different from search visibility though. Instagram leadership has mentioned that hashtags can help with search but they don’t increase reach. That means adding hashtags won’t automatically persuade Instagram to push a post to more people but if somebody is searching for a very specific type of content, a hashtag could help them find that content.

There’s also the issue of the type of content that resonates with social media users. People have been on social media for a long time. The networks noticed that users don’t tend to linger on and engage with spammy content. In 2025, Facebook specifically called out posts with distracting, unrelated, excessive hashtags in their crackdown on spammy content update. That’s a reminder to be restrained in your hashtag use. Keep it classy.

How to Update Your Marketing Now That the Function of Hashtags is Diminished

1. Write Captions with Searches in Mind

Put the energy you were devoting to hashtags into your captions. Think: If I were to search for this content, what would I type into Instagram? Work that language naturally into your captions. Keywords in your captions are just as good for searchability as hashtags once were.

If a keyword feels forced in your post, that’s when a relevant hashtag might be a good idea. For example, if you already mention B2B marketing in your latest LinkedIn post, it’s redundant to add #B2BMarketing.

2. Use Hashtags Intentionally, and Only If They Add Context to Your Post

You’ll find a range of expert advice on using hashtags, but we recommend only using them intentionally and if they add something to your post that isn’t already included. Don’t stuff 20+ hashtags into your post! If you think a hashtag will add context to your post, feel free to add it (or a few). Remember, Instagram leadership has repeatedly said hashtags won’t help boost your post reach. A unique and intentional hashtag can still, however, help guide users toward related content — like if you had a hashtag for an event or campaign where you’re promoting user-generated content.

3. Skip Generic or Irrelevant Hashtags

Choose tags that match what the post actually covers and make sure they’re descriptive. A popular tag won’t make an unrelated post show up more often in search. #Dog and #Reels isn’t going to push your content to more people, especially now that people can’t follow specific hashtags on Instagram. (They can, however, follow hashtags on TikTok still.) Generic and irrelevant hashtags can also flag your content as spam – particularly on YouTube. Relevant tags should help viewers understand what they’re about to watch.

4. Research Hashtags and Keywords to Join Niche Conversations

Threads lets you tag a post with a related topic. Hashtags used on TikTok help their algorithm connect a video to highly specific communities for example like #booktok that may be interested in that content. Using a couple accurate hashtags is better than using five generic hashtags on TikTok. This strategy can also be useful on LinkedIn where there tends to be an audience ready to engage on their topics of expertise. Instead of #marketing, try #linkedinmarketing to narrow the categorization.

Also, please be sure to actually search a hashtag before using it. You may think you want to be part of a niche hashtag and find out it’s for something you don’t want to be associated with. Make sure the posts related to a hashtag are posts you want your business to appear alongside.

A Breakdown on Hashtag Use in 2026 By Platform

Instagram
Use five or fewer specific, relevant hashtags on Instagram. These help with search but not post reach.

Facebook
Don’t use hashtags on Facebook unless there’s a relevant campaign or topic giving them purpose. They have minimal impact on content distribution. Also avoid excessive and unrelated tags to avoid looking spammy.

Threads
There are no hashtags on Threads. Assign one topic tag per post instead.

TikTok
It’s best practice to use between one and five strategic, niche hashtags for TikTok posts. Like on Instagram, the hashtags on TikTok are mainly helping confirm the topic of your post to help with categorization on the platform.

LinkedIn
You can use a couple (2 – 4) niche and relevant hashtags on LinkedIn paired with strong post keywords. We recommend using a couple keyword aligned hashtags for searchability if the terms aren’t already included in your content.

YouTube
Use 15 or fewer hashtags between the title and description. You should probably use fewer than the maximum of 15 to avoid looking spammy. We recommend no more than three. Hashtags are still clickable on YouTube, which can help viewers find related videos. Be sure the hashtags you use are relevant and specific.

The TL;DR? Hashtags still have a job in 2026, but you don’t need to include hashtags for discoverability anymore. Make them specific, use them purposefully and focus on the quality of the rest of your post over the hashtags you include.

Can’t keep up with the constantly evolving social media ecosystem? That’s where we can help. Contact c21 to discuss your social media needs and feel free to comment or ask a question on our socials and we’ll reply!