Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags, allowing users to connect directly to their interests II Instagram Finally Lets Users Follow Hashtags II Instagram Is Messing With Your Feed Again (Maybe)

Everybody's favorite photo-sharing app is going through some changes.

Instagram is everybody's favorite jealousy-inducing app. Without it, how would I know about all my friends getting to go see The Last Jedi early? Or that my cousin is on a trip in a beautiful and exotic locale, while I sit in a Starbucks? And unlike Twitter and Facebook, I actually and actively love Instagram. Which is why, I have to say, I'm a little worried about some things that are happening in Insta-world.

Previously, I've written about how Instagram's algorithmic, non-chronological feed, makes it so you only see photos from a fraction of the people you follow. This is not good! I clicked that follow button for a reason! Just show me everybody's pictures when they upload them! And so when I heard Instagram is changing the way its feed works, I was excited. And then I read how they're changing it and I was disappointed all over again.

So now there are two new additions coming to your feed. Instagram is testing a program that will allow you to follow hashtags in addition to other people's accounts. This isn't inherently a bad idea, but I will say that the idea of bringing more noise into a feed that is already struggling with serving the basic content that people are looking for is a frustrating "fix" that doesn't address the real problem

Instagram users can follow celebrities, friends, brands, and creepy pets, but there was never a way to follow their favorite hashtags. Until now.

On Tuesday, the social media platform introduced a feature that makes it much easier to curate your feeds based on your preferences and interests. The update basically allows you to follow a specific hashtag—like #streetstyle, #WCW, and #ballscape—the same way you follow an individual account. All you have to do is search the hashtag on Instagram’s explore field, click on the "follow" button, and you’ll then be presented with posts and stories marked with the specific hashtag.

If you’re concerned your feed will be flooded with low quality, random posts, don’t worry. According to The Verge, Instagram will use its algorithm to present the best and most relevant posts based on likes and your activity. Don’t think you can rack up views by piling on a bunch of hashtags. It won’t work.

You can learn more about the new feature in The Verge’s video below.

Twitter has also announced a new feature that will make social media much more #convenient. Shortly after it expanded its character limit to 280, the site confirmed it began testing a tool for tweetstorms—a series of rapid, connected tweets also known as threads.

"A few years ago we noticed people creatively stitching Tweets together to share more information or tell a longer story," Twitter product manager Sasank Reddy wrote in a blog post. "We saw this approach (which we call ‘threading’) as an innovative way to present a train of thought, made up of connected but individual element […] But this method of Tweeting, while effective and popular, can be tricky for some to create and it’s often tough to read or discover all the Tweets in a thread."

Here’s how it’ll work, according google: Once users create the introductory tweet, they can click on the "plus" button on the lower left corner of the compose box. Once they click, they’ll be presented with another compose box for the next tweet; the new box will also feature a "plus" button so the user can repeat the process until the tweetstorm is finished. You then select "tweet all."

Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows users to directly follow hashtags. Instead of having to search by hashtags, or tapping through an image or video that already uses the hashtag, users can track topics, hobbies or passions that interest them by following a hashtag. Instead of showing every piece of content that has been tagged with the particular hashtag, Instagram will use algorithms to surface the content that users have engaged with the most.

Once a hashtag is followed, the Instagram feed will display the top posts that use the hashtag and the Stories bar will feature the latest Stories. Users can also check out the hashtags that other users follow. The privacy settings for the hashtags you follow works similar to the other people you follow. If you have a private account on Instagram, only your followers can see the hashtags that you follow. Users have the freedom to unfollow a hashtag at any time.To follow a hashtag, users first have to search for a topic of interest, which displays two tabs. The first tab shows people who post content related to the topic, and the second tab lists related hashtags. Users can tap and follow on multiple hashtags from this list. Tapping through a hashtag through a search, or from a hashtag used in a shared piece of content, displays a hashtag-specific page. Users can then follow the hashtag from this page.

The announcement comes just a week after Instagram introduced Highlights and Archive functions to the Stories feature. Instagram has indicated that the introduction of the feature to follow Hashtags is just the first in a series of new tools to make discovering fresh content on the platform easier. Other features Instagram is reportedly in the process of introducing include pinning conversations in direct messages, a "Regram" button that works similar to a retweet, a GIF search option, the ability to directly share content to WhatsApp, and a feature that allows users to personally archive content