The End of Hashtags? How Social Media Algorithms Are Changing Content Discovery

February 17, 2025
Digital Marketing, Social Media

Hashtags have long been an important way for any social media post to reach a large and relevant audience organically without paid ads.

But are they still relevant in 2025?

Well, AI in social searches is dramatically improving how we discover content. It is now more of a kind of search engine.

So, do people no longer type specific hashtags to search-related posts?

So, using them in our posts makes sense.

When it is true that hashtags are getting less critical, saying they are entirely fading is a little exaggeration.

So, let’s see how they are being impacted, and using them further is even worth it.

AI Algorithms in Search

It is true and quite apparent that AI now suggests most of the content to people. So, if you are interested in any specific kind, your feed will be flooded with back-to-back reels, ads, and whatnot.

Even if you haven’t directly interacted with such type on your social platform, your search patterns over other platforms like Google may significantly influence your social feed.

For instance, if you have searched for anything on Google, chances are enough you get to see its ad on your social feed because that’s how social algorithms work.

Now that this system has become familiar enough, you can say that it slightly goes unnoticed how social algorithms rule.

Meta’s new AI-based search system is almost ready to make social media a new search engine.

With the new AI-based search, name what you want. You can put any long query as you do on Google, and Meta AI will fetch up your reels answering that.

For instance, if you are looking for a guide on social media marketing tips, it will show you the content on the exact point.

social media marketing tips

Similarly, if you ask Meta-AI what a black hole is, it will present you with all the existing reels explaining that.

Not only this, but if you ask any question about any personality or topic, it summarises the information in the form of text, just like Google SGE does, along with Source links and related topics.

Moreover, if by chance your query has any spelling error, the search algorithms are smart enough to understand what you are actually trying to ask.

That’s how dramatically social search is revolutionising and changing the way you discover content.

But does that all point to the end of hashtags? Let’s decode this.

Are Hashtags Still Relevant in 2025?

First of all, the thing you should keep in mind is that hashtag art is only meant for reach.

They also signal algorithms what your post is about, so if any user on the other side has similar interests, algorithms know that putting your post in their feed is meaningful.

This way, you don’t appear in any random but relevant feeds.

This means you’re targeting the right audience, so even if it doesn’t give a broad reach, even that minor is worth it.

Gradually, all things will start to get on track, i.e., viral posts to the right users, as algorithms have long been enough information on where and whom to show them.

Now, the question is beyond this: can we rely solely or entirely on hashtags to get reach?

So, the simple answer is “No”.

However, you should either completely ignore them as well.

We have seen a large portion of our reach coming from the hashtags we used.

That means hashtags are still worth it in 2025.

The only point is that relying solely on them isn’t a good idea.

You must adopt other social media strategies parallel to them, like remixing reels, participating in Instagram trends, e.g. audios and templates, conducting polls and giveaways, or even running paid ads and everything you can try.

That’s it!

We hope the article provided you with helpful information. If you are looking for full-fledged social media marketing services or even Instagram marketing, we would love to help. Feel free to talk to our experts or check out our packages.