Are Hashtags Still Relevant in 2026? (Stop Relying on Them)
- Philip Romano
- Dec 22, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 16
TL;DR:
Hashtags are still relevant, but their role has changed.
They are used primarily for help categorizing content, rather than pushing it. They help the algorithm label a video’s content, but don’t do anything directly for reach anymore.
Social media platforms favor correct and specific usage of hashtags, rather than hashtag spamming or using oversaturated tags.
Hashtags have been a main point of contention for the last few years. Many creators argue that without them, your video will be prevented from being recommended by the algorithm entirely, while others suggest that the exact opposite is true. Whatever the case, it signals a significant shift in social media culture in the modern era, affecting both users and the social media companies themselves.
But does that mean hashtags are entirely useless nowadays? Or have they just been significantly misused? Let’s talk about it.
How Hashtags Used to Work
When most major social media platforms initially launched, they all heavily relied on hashtag feeds to showcase users' content that was relevant to them. Hashtags were essentially manual categorization tools, so that the algorithm had an easier time directing content to the right audiences. In the early days of social, this was a completely functional system.
However, as social media grew alongside the technology of the early 2010s, aspiring creators and users started abusing the hashtag system to get their content forced into people’s feeds, regardless of whether it was relevant. They achieved this through many different methods, but the most popular one that still exists today is “hashtag spamming”.
This particular method is when someone puts a bunch of trending hashtags (typically 10-20 minimum) in their post’s caption, regardless of whether it was actually relevant for the post or not. Although this worked temporarily from 2016 till around 2022, the shift in how social media functions both from a user and an organization standpoint has made it irrelevant – but more importantly, it’s made us look at exactly how hashtags are used today.
What Changed in Social Media Algorithms
Social media no longer runs on keyword-based discovery alone. It’s now entirely focused on interest-based recommendations. Although this shift had been in the works for some time, TikTok’s popularity spike during the 2020 pandemic is what really caused this methodology to become more popular.
TikTok’s addicting algorithm can be attributed to the fact that, for the first time, a user could truly feel like they curated their own feed – their own content. Every video shown was a direct result of an action the user had taken prior, and they could feel that change in the types of videos they were being served.
How TikTok and Instagram Actually Categorize Content Now
With this change in how content is recommended, as well as the rise of AI-content scoring, platforms ultimately no longer need creators to label their content manually. This change from the norm is a big one, but it’s ultimately better for creators and their audiences alike.
Although we don’t know the inner workings of TikTok or Instagram, what we do know is that their AI will review your video based on a number of factors and determine its quality and topic. Modern algorithms evaluate content performance before expanding distribution, rather than relying on creator-provided metadata. From there, it’ll serve it to what it feels is the correct audience for that video.
Combined with artificial intelligence-powered content understanding, social media platforms now appear to prioritize the following factors:
On-screen text
Spoken keywords
Visual context
Attached audio/music
Platforms also continue to rely on viewer behavior signals to determine a video’s quality and whether it should continue to push it to new audiences. Some of these signals include:
Watch time
Completion rate
Rewatches
Engagement velocity
When asked about how Instagram's algorithm actually worked, Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, had this to say:
For our TikTok creators, a quick, easy way to check if your video is being categorized correctly or not is by checking what the recommended search is. While this test isn’t foolproof, if the search shown is generally in the right area, industry, or topic range, then your video has done everything correctly.
Do hashtags still matter?
The question that’s on every creator’s mind, and the answer is: yes, they still matter. But they don’t matter in the way that they used to.
Hashtags are still crucial when it comes to content relevance, and can help the platform figure out what your post is about more easily. However, the days of hashtag spamming for reach are over – you must be much more strategic with your tagging approach.
TikTok and Instagram have both recently implemented hashtag limits to try and encourage smarter hashtagging for creators, with TikTok’s limit being 5 and Instagram now trying out a limit of only 3 hashtags per post.
With this change, it’s clear that hashtags are no longer a primary signal but rather a supportive search signal – one that helps niche down, rather than help rank content. Algorithms are starting to focus on interest-based recommendations, and not just recommending content based on the words prevalent within its captions.
How does this affect me as a creator?
It simply means you need to think differently when writing hashtags for your next post. Instead of using oversaturated irrelevant tags like #fyp or #trending, think about what the video’s topic is about and who the video is for. By thinking about the target audience for your post, you’ll get a lot more mileage out of your hashtags.
This change in how social media works also signals something else that creators may find concerning or exciting: change. The idea that these platforms that have stayed relatively the same for over a decade have now decided to suddenly change and start improving how users interact with creators is exciting, but it also means content formats may appear and disappear as they continue to test new ideas.
Are hashtags dead?
Social media is a constantly changing landscape where new ideas are constantly thrown at the wall. And at the end of the day, hashtags are still an important part of social media today. They are not a casualty of the social media shift, although their role has changed dramatically.
Stop obsessing over hashtag lists and spamming the top 100 trending words, and start focusing on content clarity and ensuring clear communication to both viewers and the algorithm on what your video is about. Hashtags were meant to support good content after all – they aren’t meant to save bad content.
Want to learn more about social media's best practices? Read more at our blog.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hashtags should I use in 2026?
How many you should use depends entirely on what platform you’re posting to. Most platforms perform best with around 2-4 highly relevant hashtags. Some platforms even have hashtag limits, like TikTok and Instagram.
Do hashtags still help videos go viral?
Not directly. Hashtags don’t give reach bursts or push content anymore, but are rather a contributing factor in helping the algorithm figure out who to serve your video to.
What matters more than hashtags now?
Content clarity above all else. Platforms now heavily prioritize on-screen text, spoken keywords, visual context, and viewer engagement signals to determine how and where they’ll push a video.
