Remember when the golden rule on Instagram was simple? Use all 30 hashtags to get maximum reach. That advice is now officially outdated. Instagram has quietly changed the game by limiting posts and reels to just five hashtags. And surprisingly, this might actually help creators instead of hurting them.
Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head, announced with a clear message. Stop stuffing random hashtags into posts. It isn’t helping your content, and it hasn’t for a while.
The Real Reason Behind This Change On Instagram
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Let’s be very honest. We have all seen those posts with 30 hashtags in the first comment on Instagram. Half of them barely relate to the content. #Love #InstaGood #PhotoOfTheDay #Happy, you know the drill.
Instagram calls this hashtag stuffing, and they are tired of it. Their research revealed an interesting finding: posts with fewer, targeted hashtags tend to perform better than those with 20 or more random ones. The platform said and posted on their @creator account that using fewer, more targeted hashtags, rather than generic ones, can improve both your content performance and people’s experience on Instagram.
This came about a month after Instagram quietly removed the option to follow hashtags. Both changes show where Instagram is heading- less system gaming and more genuine content.
What Did Adam Mosseri Say?
Adam Mosseri didn’t sugarcoat it. On the Instagram broadcast channel, he made it very clear that hashtags help with search, but they don’t increase reach.
All those hours spent researching the perfect hashtag combination? Mosseri says creators should focus on figuring out what kind of content actually resonates with their audience instead.
Why Are Generic Hashtags Actually Hurting You?
Here is where it gets interesting. Those massive hashtags like #Reels or #Explore that everyone uses? Instagram says they might actually hurt your performance.
Think about it. When a hashtag has 500 million posts, your content disappears in seconds. Plus, these general tags tell Instagram nothing about your actual content, making it harder to show your post to people who actually care.
Instagram specifically called out hashtags like #reels and #explore, saying they do little to improve visibility in places like Explore and may, in fact, negatively impact a post’s performance.
How To Actually Use Your Five Hashtags
With only five shots, you need to make them count. The advice is straightforward.
- Be specific: If you are posting a makeup tutorial, use #MakeupTutorial or #EyeshadowLooks, not #Beauty or #InstaGood.
- Match your niche: The platform used beauty creators as an example. Stick to beauty-related hashtags so people interested in beauty can actually find you. The same goes for fitness, travel, or food. Whatever your niche is, stay within it.
- Skip the obvious ones: Don’t waste a slot on unnecessary hashtags. Everyone already knows you are on Instagram.
- Check hashtag size: A hashtag with 100K posts might work better than one with 100M. Your content won’t get buried as fast.
- Mix it up: Using the same five hashtags on every post? The algorithm notices that kind of behaviour.
Studies done before these changes already showed that posts with five to nine hashtags got better engagement than posts with 20+ hashtags. Instagram is simply catching up with what the data has been saying all along.
Instagram’s Other Recent Changes
This update is not happening in isolation. Instagram recently launched “Your Algorithm”, a feature that shows users what the platform thinks they care about. There is a small icon in the top right corner of the Reels tab. Tap it, and you can see what the algorithm is prioritising for you.
All these updates point in the same direction. Instagram wants better content discovery based on what users actually like, not what hashtags creators stuff into their posts.
If you have spent years building a hashtag strategy, this change might feel annoying. That’s fair. But honestly, it is probably a good move.
The old system was exhausting. Everyone copied the same hashtag lists, hoping the algorithm would smile on them. The posts looked messy. Discovery felt random. And let’s be real. It wasn’t working that well anyway.
With fewer, smarter hashtags, scrolling through hashtag feeds might actually become useful again instead of being flooded with barely relevant posts from people trying to game the system.
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