Instagram head Adam Mosseri has revealed that the Meta-owned social media platform automatically reduces the video quality of the posts that aren’t performing well. Notably, the company prioritizes video quality for content that attracts higher user engagement. This means if your posts aren’t getting many views then Instagram will save your videos in a lower resolution.
Instagram automatically reduces the video quality of posts with fewer viewers
In a recent video AMA, Mosseri explained why some videos on the platform are lower in quality than others. He mentioned that Instagram devotes more resources to videos from “creators who drive more views”. Mosseri was responding to a question about why old stories look “blurry” in highlights.
“In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can. But 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”, he explained in a detailed manner. Furthermore, Mosseri added that if a post picks up more views again, then the company will render its video in higher quality. Instagram reduces video quality to “show people the highest-quality content we can”.
Needless to say, this caused some concern from smaller creators
Notably, Instagram’s approach has sparked concern from small creators. Some of these commented on Mosseri’s post that this puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with bigger players.
In related news, Instagram and Spotify announced a new collaboration earlier this month. The partnership allows users to easily add songs from Instagram posts and reels to their Spotify library. If an Instagram post has a song, and it’s linked at the bottom of the display, you can tap on the song name to visit the audio preview page. Here, you will find a new “Add” button with the Spotify logo right next to the audio scrubber.
Once you tap the Add button, the song will be automatically added to the “Liked Songs” in your Spotify library. It’s worth mentioning that you will first need to link your Spotify account to Instagram in order to access this feature.
