"Hashtags boost your reach"
Verdict: NO HASHTAG FEATURE in the 2026 ranker
The ranking model's inputs are ID-hash embeddings, engagement history, surface, and post age. Post text (including hashtags) reaches the system only through Grox multimodal embeddings — where a hashtag is just more text, and spammy tag-stuffing is exactly what LLM spam screens catch.
The code
phoenix/recsys_model.py RecsysBatch; grox/embedder/multimodal_post_embedder_v5.py.
See for yourself: every term in the scoring formula
This is the complete list of scoring terms in
home-mixer/scorers/ranking_scorer.rs
(compute_weighted_score, commit 0bfc279). Read it —
what isn’t in this list isn’t in the ranking formula:
favorite × +weight (withheld) reply × +weight (withheld) retweet × +weight (withheld) photo_expand × +weight (withheld) click × +weight (withheld) profile_click × +weight (withheld) vqv × +weight (withheld) share × +weight (withheld) share_via_dm × +weight (withheld) share_via_copy_link × +weight (withheld) dwell × +weight (withheld) quote × +weight (withheld) quoted_click × +weight (withheld) quoted_vqv × +weight (withheld) cont_dwell_time × +weight (withheld) cont_click_dwell_time × +weight (withheld) follow_author × +weight (withheld) not_interested × −weight (withheld) block_author × −weight (withheld) mute_author × −weight (withheld) report × −weight (withheld) not_dwelled × −weight (withheld)