Are hashtags lifeless in 2025?  

Nonetheless, as we step additional into 2025, the query buzzing throughout digital corridors is, are hashtags nonetheless related?

Whereas they haven’t fully disappeared, they’ve definitely misplaced their crown.

The decline in hashtag exercise

Let’s return to 2014. Instagram was gaining traction; Twitter (now X) posts have been nonetheless 140 characters lengthy, and hashtags have been gold. They helped content material go viral, introduced visibility, and even began social actions.

These hashtags have been primarily a approach to drive key phrase searches. They supplied content material options based mostly on these key phrases.

Nonetheless, as platforms advanced, so did their algorithms, which can have pushed hashtags to a nook.

Presently, the digital panorama has grow to be algorithm-first, and hashtags have someway been relegated. TikTok is the dominant content material platform amongst Gen Z’s in Africa and past, and it doesn’t depend on hashtags to floor trending content material. As a substitute, it leans on behavioural information, that’s, what you want, how lengthy you watch, and what you touch upon, to curate your feed.

Instagram and X have adopted swimsuit, shifting in direction of interest-driven discovery. It’s much less about what you tag and extra about what the algorithm thinks you’ll like.

Hashtags nonetheless stay, simply not how they as soon as did.

“Hashtags are dropping their contact, however they are often useful for brand spanking new and upcoming content material creators,” says Nathan Olori, a TikTok and Instagram influencer. “You don’t see celebrities utilizing hashtags as a result of there are different social media instruments, however for brand spanking new content material creators, they’re nonetheless someway related.”

Within the African creator ecosystem, particularly in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa, hashtags nonetheless serve area of interest functions, group constructing (#TechpointDigest), occasion aggregation (#LagosStartupExpo2025), and activism (#JusticeMustPrevail). However their position in boosting discoverability is almost out of date.

Meta’s documentation now says hashtags are a “secondary sign” for Instagram’s suggestion engine. Translation? Use them in order for you, however don’t count on them to offer your posts a large attain.

A video of Instagram’s CEO stating that hashtags don’t essentially drive engagement surfaced on the Web early this 12 months and has sparked debate amongst customers.

Some have requested, “If they’re now not related, then why do you continue to have them as an choice when posting?”

These hashtags are generally simply used to classify and index content material, particularly on platforms like Instagram, which is why it’s nonetheless an choice.

Within the 2025 African Creator Survey, 73% of content material creators mentioned that they depend on developments to create content material and enhance viewers development, slightly than hashtags. That is related since most of those developments could be seen on the ‘For You’ web page on TikTok or on Instagram’s ‘Feeds’ and ‘Discover’ web page.

In the meantime, on LinkedIn, hashtags are alive and effectively. Professionals nonetheless use them to tag subjects, be a part of conversations, and present up in searches. Nonetheless, that could be extra about search engine optimization than group.

What’s changing hashtags?

One phrase: algorithms.

Algorithms have grow to be so superior that they’ll perceive what content material is about with no single tag. Utilizing AI-powered content material recognition, platforms analyse visuals, textual content, speech, and behavior to find out who ought to see a put up.

This AI analyses video content material like background, sounds, subtitle texts, and motions to depict and push these movies to the related viewers.

For creators, which means focusing extra on storytelling, modifying, timing, and viewers engagement than stacking #likefortags.

Concurrently, communities are shifting from open timelines to closed areas, akin to WhatsApp channels and Telegram teams, the place hashtags are irrelevant.

Hashtags in Africa

In Africa, the place social media is usually a car for entrepreneurship, activism, and affect, the hashtag as soon as had a particular place. Campaigns like #EndSars in Nigeria, #EndAnglophoneCrisis in Cameroon and #RapeNationalEmergency in Liberia, confirmed the facility of hashtags to unify voices throughout a continent.

Right now, even grassroots actions are evolving. AI-driven instruments, meme tradition, and viral challenges at the moment are main the cost. The message spreads with or with no tag as a result of the platforms do the tagging behind the scenes.

So, are hashtags lifeless in 2025? Not precisely, however they’ve been changed with smarter algorithms, AI content material mapping, and behaviour-first discovery fashions.

For African creators, manufacturers, and activists, the main focus now will not be on what you tag however on what you create and who you join with.

Hashtags should still be in your keyboard, however they’re now not the important thing to digital success.

The age of hashtags isn’t over, although; it’s simply being redefined.