Instagram lowers video quality for unpopular videos

The popularity of an Instagram video can affect the actual video quality: according to Adam Mosseri (the meta manager who runs Instagram and Threads), more popular videos appear in higher quality, while less popular videos appear in lower quality.

In a video (via The Verge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show “the highest quality video we can,” but he said “when something goes unwatched for a long time – because the vast majority of views happen.” The beginning – we will move to a lower quality video.”

This is not entirely new information; Meta wrote last year about using different encoding configurations for different videos depending on their popularity. But after someone shared Mosseri's video on Threads, many users had questions and criticism, with one even going so far as to call the company's approach “really crazy.”

The discussion prompted Mosseri to provide more detail. For one, he clarified that these decisions are made at a “general level, not an individual level,” so this is not a situation where the engagement of individual viewers affects the quality of the video played for them.

“We are focusing on higher quality (more computationally intensive encoding and more expensive storage for larger files) for creators that generate more views,” Mosseri added. “It’s not a binary [threshold]but more of a sliding scale.”

A number of users also opined that this approach creates a system that favors popular creators over smaller ones – popular creators can post at the highest quality, bolstering their popularity, while smaller creators don't break through.

Mosseri said it was “the right concern” but claimed: “In practice it doesn't seem to matter much as the shift in quality is not large.” [whether] Whether people interact with videos depends much more on the content of the video than on the quality.” Quality is “much more important to the original creator,” he said.