The World Cup ended last week, taking with it the daily excitement and office distractions that watching top soccer squads provided every day.
As if we weren't sad enough, another key World Cup tradition is now a thing of the past: Twitter's hashflags have disappeared from the platform.
During the World Cup, Twitter was filled with small, colorful country flags from all of the participating nations. Using a hashtag coupled with a country abbreviation -- for example, #USA or #GER -- automatically added a small flag emoji to your tweet.
The hashflags no longer work, which was expected now that the World Cup is over, but existing hashflags have also been removed from all previous tweets. Check out this tweet from Shakira, which looks a lot sadder sans hashflags:
Twitter initially unveiled hashflags at the 2010 World Cup, and it's safe to assume they'll be back in 2018. In the interim, perhaps Twitter will experiment with flags for other sporting events and teams. (Football season for both the NFL and European football clubs is right around the corner.)
@samcmlaird @AlexStone7 @twitter totally agree! Also, if you're listening @TwitterSports, pls make club flags for the football season. Tks— 101 Great Goals (@102greatgoals) July 16, 2014
For now, though, our hashflag tweets will exist as mere shells of their former selves.
RIP hashflags. Thanks for a fun tournament.