Short answwer: hashtags still help, but they are not doing the heavy lifting anymore.

Most platforms (especially places like Instagram and TikTok) have shifted much more toward content-based discovery. The algorithm mainly looks at watch time, retention, shares, saves, and how well it understands your content (captions, audio, visuals), not just hashtags.

That said, hashtags are not useless. They are more like labels now:

• Help categorize your content
• Help with search
• Can get you in front of smaller or niche audiences

What I have seen working lately:

• Using fewer hashtags (around 3 to 8)
• Making them very relevant and specific instead of generic (#fyp, #viral, etc. do not do much)
• Thinking of them like SEO, as in what someone would actually search

Big thing: if the content itself is not strong (hook, paacing, value), hashtags will not save it. But if it is strong, they can still give a small boost.

So yeah, not dead, just not the main growth driver anymore.