This is why Instagram is reducing the quality of these video posts

Instagram, with its short-form video content or Reels, caters to a huge audience globally, with millions of users watching numerous videos daily. However, many Instagram uploaders have complained of lower video quality of their Reels or Stories after they upload them, especially if they are garnering fewer views. It turns out that the platform intentionally adjusts the quality of videos based on content popularity.

Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri, during an AMA session on the app, stated: “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. And then if it’s watched again a lot then we’ll re-render the higher quality video."

The platform has also confirmed that it adjusts the quality of videos to reduce the load on its servers and to save load on the device’s processor. This is particularly beneficial to users who have low-end devices, as lower-quality video files don’t take up much storage or require high processing power. By prioritising higher resolution for popular videos, Instagram aims to optimize bandwidth usage for its other videos.

Further, Mosseri was also asked whether this would make it harder for smaller creators to compete. However, he has rebuffed such claims and added that user engagement relies more on the content of the video rather than its video bitrate quality. Moreover, he said, “Quality, he said, turns out “to be much more important to the original creator.”