Instagram Reduced Video Quality of Unpopular Videos, Mosseri Confirms

Highlights

• Adam Mosseri confirmed that Instagram videos’ quality depends on their popularity.
• More popular videos are shown in higher quality.
• Mosseri clarified that the quality adjustment happens on an aggregate level.
• It doesn’t affect individual user video quality directly.

Did you know the quality of Instagram videos depends on their popularity and reach? Well, as per top Meta executives, it does.

Adam Mosseri, the Meta executive who leads Instagram and Threads, in a video via The Verge recently revealed that how popular the Instagram video is can change the video quality. According to Mosseri, more popular videos get shown in higher quality, while videos with fewer views and reach get reduced to a lower quality.

Mosseri can be seen saying, “the highest-quality video that we can,” but he said, “if something isn’t watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views are in the beginning — we will move to a lower quality video.”

This information, however, shouldn’t sound new to anyone who has been keeping track of the tech world, particularly paying attention to how Meta functions.

Meta last year mentioned details of using different encoding configurations for different videos based on which video gets more popular

The internet, however, was not amused after the recent confirmation by Mosseri.

When a user shared Mosseri’s video on Threads, many comments questioned and criticised Meta’s approach. One user even described this practice of reducing video quality based on popularity as “truly insane.”

 

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As Mosseri’s video started a proper discussion online tech community, the man has to come forward with more explanation.

Mosseri later clarified decisions on such matters always happen on an “aggregate level, not an individual level.” What he basically meant was how this approach in no way affects or decides the quality of videos an individual Instagram user will get based on their viewer engagement.

 

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“We bias to higher quality (more CPU intensive encoding and more expensive storage for bigger files) for creators who drive more views,” Mosseri added.

“It’s not a binary [threshold], but rather a sliding scale,” he further clarified.

Many users also pointed out that the practice of benefiting popular videos creates a system which only benefits popular Instagram creators. Small creators are very much at a disadvantage with this approach.

This will only benefit influencers with a massive following on the platform and creators who manage to get their videos viral. The chance of small creators to break through this system is close to zero.

 

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Mosseri agreed with the criticism and said it’s “the right concern,” but he also stated, “In practice, it doesn’t seem to matter much, as the quality shift isn’t huge and [whether] or not people interact with videos is way more based on the content of the video than the quality.”

He also clarified that the video quality turns out “to be much more important to the original creator.”

FAQs

Q1. Does Instagram reduce the video quality?

Answer. Adam Mosseri revealed that more popular videos get shown in higher quality, while videos with fewer views and reach get reduced to a lower quality.

Q2. What concern do critics have about Instagram’s video quality approach?

Answer. Critics argue that the practice of benefiting popular videos creates a system which only benefits popular Instagram creators, disadvantaging smaller creators.

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