Hyderabad: Instagram apparently lowers the quality of videos on the platform if they do not receive enough views. Since older videos tend to stop receiving views from users, they also fall under the purview of this arrangement. The information comes from Instagram head Adam Mosseri during a Q&A session on his Instagram Stories, where he explained the reason behind the platform's approach to video quality.
Addressing a question about older Stories appearing blurry, Mosseri said they want to show the highest-quality video they can when someone watches a Story or a Reel. However, they move to a lower-quality video when something does not get views for a long time.
Mosseri also highlighted that the vast majority of views are in the beginning, indicating that older videos often face the brunt of quality degradation. However, if a video is watched again a lot, Instagram re-renders the higher quality video, Mosseri said.
A user on Threads posted the screen-recorded version of Mosseri's explanation, adding that the quality of Instagram Reels and Stories may depend on its performance as the platform may reduce the quality of your video if it doesn't get many views. Reacting to the Threads post, Mosseri said that the approach works at an aggregate level and not on an individual viewer level.
"We bias to higher quality (more CPU intensive encoding and more expensive storage for bigger files) for creators who drive more views," Mosseri said. "It’s not a binary threshold, but rather a sliding scale."
Several Threads users also tried to explain the reason behind Instagram's approach to video quality, highlighting that it makes sense from a technical perspective as it would help the platform reduce the storage cost. However, they also shared concern for creators who spend time creating high-quality content just for it to be downgraded to low resolution.