Wouldn’t it be nice if you could follow a hashtag on Instagram? Instagram is reportedly testing a new feature that lets you do just that. Would you like to receive messages by topic? Soon it could well be possible, Instagram tells the press. The social media giant is still testing but in a while Instagram members can expect the a new feature. Currently, Instagram only lets you follow people. It’s a system that works, but it doesn’t help you stay on top of trending hashtags or custom hashtags.
Topics according to, but without overload
Instagram is working on a new feature that will allow members to start following not just people but hashtags. Users can use the test to follow topics of interest directly based on hashtags. For example, if you like surfing a lot, then you don’t need to start following surfers, simply the word surfing. To ensure that an overload of posts does not appear on your feed, Instagram will only show you the most recent and popular posts.
Sort of like Twitter
With Twitter, you can use apps like TweetDeck or Hootsuite to follow and track specific hashtags instead of looking them up manually every time. The ability to follow hashtags on Instagram will work in much the same way. This would also change the way we use Instagram. Users would be able to keep better tabs on topics of interest to them and it could also be very useful to keep a record of the latest news.
Just a little more patience
So far, the feature has only been briefly shown to the press, so it appears to be a limited test for now. Instagram declined to share more information, but experimental features often end up large-scale. However, this #feature seems to be a particularly useful one, so I imagine it’s only a matter of time before we can all get into hashtag-liking.
