These are the trends that took over Instagram in 2018

The hashtags, emojis and thriving online communities

As the year comes to a close, we're looking back at all the things that have happened in 2018. The top Google searches of the year show that we were most interested in Meghan Markle (no surprises there) and Love Island (again, not shocked) - but what were we up to on Instagram?

The social media platform has evolved from the early days of basic dinner pics with a Valencia filter. Now, we can upload clips of our lives to Stories, stream videos on Instagram TV and use the explore tool to find the content we most want to see.

And what have we been looking at in our millions?

When it comes to hashtags, the most used was #metoo, with around 1.5 million people selecting to join the movement on Instagram. Next was #timesup with 597,000 tags, followed closely by #marchforourlives with 562,000. So while we're finding out about celebs and reality TV on Google, it looks like we're using Instagram as a political platform, raising awareness for campaigns and movements that mean something to us.

It also seems that we're sharing the love on Insta, with the Heart Love Sticker by Arata being the most-used Giphy sticker in Stories, and the heart eyes was the most-used Face Filter. In terms of comments, the heart emoji was used over 14 billion times - does everyone know the real heart emoji meanings? Regardless - it's a lot of love.

The platform also saw interest rise in online communities. ASMR was the top niche community trend of 2018, with soap cutting, slime popping and makeup shaving all coming in as top players. Fornite also made its mark on Instagram, with the hashtag becoming the fastest growing tag globally.

K-Pop saw an increase in popularity, with the BTS 'Army' being the top fandom community, and Drake's #InMyFeelingschallenge also did the rounds - remember when people were dancing alongside moving cars? Yeah, that. Even Will Smith got involved.

What are your trend predictions for 2019?