The popular social media application, Instagram, will be testing a new way of navigating through its main page which will be more based on the platform’s trademark #hashtags.
Though this new test could make it more difficult for users to see the recent content by all the accounts they’re following (such as their friends or favourite artists) it will also make it easier to access the posts and reels about a specific hashtag that have received the most likes. That way, it’ll also become less complicated for users to find what they’re searching for.
The platform’s owners stressed that they will be attempting to bring “more recent and timely” content to users, to see how they interact with this new feature.
Initially, hashtags were used as a fun way for people to add a sense of creativity to the photos they uploaded but as time went on and more and more images were added under the same hashtag category, they became a way for users to attract viewership.
The hashtags system will rely heavily on algorithms to bring users more marketable content, despite reactions by people who prefer to view things in chronological order. Instagram has been moving more and more towards that direction in an attempt to make Reels its most attractive feature, rather than photos or stories, which is what most people use it for today.
The main reason behind this is the strong competition with TikTok, which is constantly rising in popularity, exceeding even more traditional video apps such as YouTube in certain instances (Android users are now using TikTok more than YouTube and Instagram).
While this new feature still remains in the testing phase, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how users react to this big change in one of their most commonly used social media platforms.
