If you haven’t already signed up for Threads, Instagram’s little sister that looks and feels a lot like X, you may want to jump on the bandwagon now as it continues to improve the experience and attract and maintain users.
This time the new app is working on adding hashtags.
Currently you don’t need them at all to locate content, Threads has a nice search bar that works great.
So why the push?
Hashtags are in our bones!
Years of relying on the little crosshatch to discover and tag posts means a lot of folks are jonesing for them. They crave the warm fuzzies of familiarity. In fact, it feels sort of naked to attempt social media without them.
Threads understands this and knows that old habits die hard, so it appears they’re giving the masses what they want even if they don’t need it.
As reported on by SocialMediaToday the news of the hashtag feature was leaked by app researcher – Alessandro Paluzzi. On his X account, Paluzzi posted a screenshot of Threads’ backend which clearly showed the hashtag symbol. This makes it hard to argue that Threads’ developers aren’t working on it.
SocialMediaToday however surmised that just because it’s happening doesn’t mean anyone knows how Threads will use hashtags. They theorized a stipulation: “Threads could also be looking to implement a tag limit (though that may not relate to hashtags specifically), in order to restrict potential misuse of hashtags to “trendjack” conversations.”
As further hypothesized by The Verge, the word “Threads” appears to be hyperlinked in Paluzzi’s post which could mean that “maybe you’ll link to individual words or phrases instead of dropping a #hashtag in your post.”
It’s all wild guesses for now, but it’s hard to doubt that hashtags are coming to Threads in some form or other.
Whatever happens it’s obvious that Threads is busting their butts to build out the app and attract and keep users. It appears to be working though growth has slowed.
According to Exploding Topics, Threads now boasts 137 million users. It took the site only one hour to reach one million users, and seven to reach ten million when they launched in early July. To put this in perspective, Exploding Topics shared a chart which showed how other sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter compared – these platforms took months to years to reach what Threads did in hours.
This alone should have you considering how you can build out your presence on Threads. It seems to be here to stay and with new features coming down the pike like hashtags, it may do exactly what it set out to do without saying it… put Musk out of his misery and take down X.
Photo credit: iStock.com/hapabapa
—
Alyssa Collins hails from Minnesota, where snowy days were the perfect excuse to stay warm inside and write. Over the years, she turned that joy into a career and has authored numerous articles for various publications (under pen names). Email Alyssa via alyssa@ynot.com.
