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Instagram Limits Hashtags to Five Per Post to Improve Content Discovery
Instagram has announced a limit on content discovery on its platform. This is now limiting the number of hashtags that can be added to a Reel or post. According to the company, using targeted hashtags can help creators with content discovery.
The photo-sharing platform, Instagram, has announced that it is going to restrict content discovery on the platform. This comes after it decided to enforce a hashtag limit on creatives posting their contents on the platform. According to the social media giant, which is owned by Meta, posting contents with fewer hashtags has the ability to improve discoveries instead of posting many hashtags on a piece of posted content. This has come at a time when it was expected to reduce spamming.
Introduced on the network since 2011, hashtags are a long-standing feature of Instagram that purportedly help with post discovery. According to the technology behemoth, this feature allows photos to appear in relevant topic searches, trending, and algorithmic recommendations. The Meta-owned social media platform previously allowed users to add up to 30 hashtags to a single post, but this will no longer be possible.
Through the Creators Account, the company announced that starting today, Instagram will allow a maximum of five hashtags in a Reel or post. The social media giant stated, "We've found that using fewer (up to five) more targeted hashtags instead of many generic hashtags can improve both your content's performance and people's experience on Instagram."
The company wants creators to be more intentional about the hashtags they use and focus on hashtags that relate to the content they're publishing. Citing an example, Instagram said that beauty creators can help attract users interested in beauty content by using beauty-related hashtags.
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Generic hashtags like #reels or #explore, which are commonly used by creators, "don't really help" content appear in the Explore feed and elsewhere. On the contrary, they can harm content performance, the company said.
This development comes after a previous report earlier this month claimed that Instagram was testing a three-hashtag limit per Reel or post. A notification reportedly appeared when adding a hashtag, stating that only three hashtags were allowed. Instagram head Adam Mosseri has already confirmed that hashtags "don't work," clarifying that they are no longer the main factor behind reach or visibility on Instagram.
