Twitter might be about to ruin the best thing about hashtags.
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(Pocket-lint) – Twitter is working on a new type of hashtag that isn’t clickable, changing how this feature works for the first time.
Hashtags have long been part of how Twitter works, allowing users to click or tap on them and then see all the tweets that include the same tag. But that could be about to change, with researcher Jane Manchun Wong finding that Twitter is “working on an experiment” that would make these hashtags behave like any other text – making them unclickable.
Twitter is working on an experiment where #hashtags will no longer be clickable links
(unless the tweet contains branded hashtags like #OneTeam and #Periscope that brands pay to add an icon next to hashtags for a period of time to promote things)
I don’t really know what this is for… pic.twitter.com/DdcYyDVaNM-
Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 10, 2022
It’s unclear why Twitter might be working on this change, but there might be a clue in another discovery made by the same researcher. According to them, tweets that include branded hashtags would remain clickable, which could allow Twitter to monetize them in a way that currently doesn’t exist.
Unfortunately, this could change the way many people use Twitter to find discussions around a particular topic or event. This is certainly something Twitter is thinking about in conducting this so-called experiment. With the ongoing sale to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, it’s possible that Twitter is looking to make money wherever possible in the future.
Written by Oliver Haslam. Edited by Rik Henderson.
