Instagram has announced a new restriction on hashtag use in posts, as it continues to examine changes in user behavior relating to tags, while also seeking ways to limit spammers and scammers in the app.

Instagram has noted many times before that hashtags are no longer as important as they once were for content discovery, with AI algorithms now playing a bigger part in highlighting the most relevant content to each user.

But they can still help in guiding users towards related content, and sorting content based on relevant topics.

As such, Instagram has been testing a hashtag limit on posts for the past year, with many users limited to three hashtags in the most recent experiment.

But now, IG has settled on limiting tags to five per post, which will become the new universal restriction in the app.

As per IG:

“Instagram will gradually update the number of hashtags that you can include in a caption for a reel or post to five. We find that using fewer (up to 5) more targeted hashtags, rather than many generic ones, can improve both your content’s performance and people’s experience on Instagram.”

Instagram says that targeted, relevant hashtags can play a role in discovery, but it’s limiting this to five to avoid misuse.

Which, again, is in line with what IG has been telling creators for years now.

That’s been most notable in the development of Threads, on which Meta’s team has taken a far more restrictive approach with tags, limiting them to one per post.

That’s reflective of the platform’s broader view on tags, with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri repeatedly noting, in various public statements, that hashtags don’t work like they used to.

Indeed, here’s an overview of Mosseri’s repeated derision of hashtags as a discovery tool:

• In October 2023, Mosseri said that hashtags will not “meaningfully change the trajectory” of Threads’ development
• Then in late October, Threads rolled out topic tags, which enable users to add one topic to each update, in order to “make it easier for others to find and join in on the conversation”
• In January 2024, Mosseri said that hashtags may be “good to build” for Threads, in line with user requests, but that they won’t “noticeably grow Threads or Threads usage”
• In February this year, in a talk about Instagram, Mosseri said that hashtags “don’t work” to increase reach
• In March this year, Threads added topic tags on profiles to help showcase what you’re likely to post about
• In May this year, Mosseri once again said that hashtags don’t improve visibility on Instagram, but they are “a great way to let people know what a post is about and connect posts”

So hashtags, in general, don’t serve the same purpose that they once did, though many people are still habitual hashtag users, and they can have some benefits.

Just not that many, which is why IG is moving to limit hashtag use.

So, five or fewer tags per IG post. Better make them count.