Only One Direction for New Twitter Hashflags: Up

November 24th, 2015 by Amanda Ball

Anyone who has been on Twitter recently has seen the popular custom Twitter emojis known as Hashflags. Hashflag images appear after a #hashtag and are activated on Twitter for specific occasions or events. Artists and events use these to generate trending hashtags, and having the specific Hashflag gives an incentive to tweet it.

Even though they have been around for some time, the first sighting for me was during the album release of One Direction’s new album, Made in the A.M. Clearly, this sparked my interest.

One Direction Hashflags

One Direction used these to promote their new album and pretty much took over Twitter feeds. Every fan girl (including myself) used one of the Hashflags to display their favorite member. I’m sure Harry Styles had the most #1DHarry tweets, but I may be biased.

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After a few days of the Hashflags being available, One Direction collaborated with Twitter to set up a worldwide competition to find the biggest fans in the top 10 countries. More than 140 countries battled it out in a Twitter vote to show how devoted they were by using assigned One Direction country hashtags. Sadly, the USA didn’t make the top 10, but we know our loyalty stands strong.

Because Twitter has released this for events as well, the most recent American Music Awards took part in the new trend. Twenty unique Hashflags were released during the airing of the #AMAs on November 21, 2015.  Each time a performance graced our television screens, a hashtag displayed at the bottom for us to use when live tweeting. Macklemore, Meghan Trainor, Nick Jonas, and One Direction are a few of the artists that had a custom Hashflag.

Screenshot Image Of Twitter Hashflags

If you are curious to know what Hashflags and artists generated the most talk on Twitter during the AMAs, you can take one guess. One Direction made a clean sweep of the awards won, and they were also the most discussed artist on Twitter during the show. I’d say they are doing just fine without Zayn…SLAY!

How to Use Hashflags

As the rise of Hashflags continues, here is a list of things to keep in mind:

  • They are not permanent. The lifespan of a Hashflag lasts as long as the event/occasion it is associated with.
  • They don’t count as characters. YAY! 🙂
  • Hashflags’ view is currently limited to desktops and the Twitter app.
  • All active Hashflags are visible on hashfla.gs. Check it out to see a list of all the current/available Hashflags you can use in your tweets.

What has been your favorite Hashflag on Twitter… besides #1DHarry?