San Francisco, Dec 13 (IANS): Following Twitter's footsteps of searching hashtags and staying connected with hobbies, passions and communities, Instagram on Wednesday launched a similar feature for users to make their interests more discoverable.

"Everyday, millions of people share photos and videos and tag them with relevant hashtags. Hashtags represent the many interests and passions of our community. To make these posts even more discoverable, we're introducing hashtags you can follow," the company said in a blog.

Following a hashtag is just like following a friend. To get started, search for a topic you are interested in or tap on a hashtag from any post.

You will see relevant hashtags displayed in the search results along with related accounts.

When you find a hashtag you like, open the hashtag page and tap on the follow button. You'll begin seeing top posts from that hashtag in your feed and some of the latest stories in your stories bar. You can always unfollow a hashtag at any time.

Users can also check the hashtags other people follow in their profiles.

Similar to people you follow, hashtags you follow respect your privacy settings. If you set your account to private, the hashtags you follow will only be visible to your followers.