Fame begets more fame and those who haven’t broken into the scene have to prove themselves first to receive support.
Instagram revolutionized its platform when it made a push towards Reels, showing preferential treatment towards video content over static images on its platform. As it turns out, that is not all Instagram has done, going so far as to guarantee good video quality only on popular posts. Adam Mosseri, the executive in charge of leading Threads and Instagram, says there is an intentional change in the video quality of a post depending on whether it is popular or not.
Creators on Instagram are already at a disadvantage when they try to break into an oversaturated field, but now it appears that not only do they need to fight the algorithm to be seen, but they also need to work harder to ensure their video quality matches that of creators who are already popular.
Instagram’s video quality changes may not be a pressing issue for the large majority of us who don’t post for the public, but it still affects how we as users consume content and should be acknowledged and understood.
Image: Pexels
This Just In—Instagram Admits to Boosting the Video Quality of Popular Posts
Yes, Instagram improves the video quality for popular posts to showcase the content in the best light. On the other hand, on videos with low view counts where people scroll away early on after encountering the content, the quality of the video gets downgraded.
Explaining the system in an Instagram post that was re-shared to Threads, Mosseri stated, “In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can if someone is watching a story or a reel or a photo. But if something isn’t watched for a long time and 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.”
TechCrunch pointed out that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard Instagram—or Meta to be more precise—admit that they regulate the configurations of a video on the basis of how it performs. Last year in May, Meta uploaded a blog explaining its first ASIC for video transcoding.
In the post, the company explained that the overall watch time on its apps is generated by only a small percentage of the videos that are uploaded, so Meta uses different encoding configurations to process and optimize the video for sharing. This allows them to support—and profit from—popular creators who are already generating views.
This earlier explanation went under the radar but the new post that is gaining a lot of traction on Threads has sparked off many angry responses towards the platform. Mosseri also explained that if someone is watching the videos on a slower internet connection, the videos will automatically switch to lower quality so they can load quickly. “The goal is to show people the highest quality content that we can.”
Does It Matter If Instagram Reduces the Video Quality?
As a general principle, the content of the video matters more than how high-definition the video looks to be, however, many will admit to preferring crisp and clear content over something that looks low-budget. Now, many users have expressed their disapproval of this mechanism on Threads, explaining that creators who want their content to reach a wider audience will have a much harder time making it happen.
Popular Instagrammers already have the budget to buy expensive equipment, record high-quality videos, and hire experts to edit and ensure their content is appealing to their followers. For a young artist or novice creator who is trying to share their work and find their audience, top-notch video quality will be considerably more unattainable to begin with, and Instagram reducing the video quality will further hurt their reach.
According to a follow-up statement on the issue, Mosseri explains the concern is fair but the difference in quality isn’t “huge” and viewers still continue to engage with content based on what is in it. “Quality seems to be much more important to the original creator, who is more likely to delete the video if it looks poor than to their viewers.”
Altering quality based on popularity is not a move that is being prioritized on the basis of malice or a desire to suppress creators. It is more likely that Instagram only has the bandwidth to ensure some of the videos on its platform are high quality, and it chooses to support the videos that are already being viewed, interacted with and watched to the end.
In order to reserve its computing power for those who can put it to good use, Meta waits for a video to perform well and then extends its resources to support its performance. While the explanation still sounds like we have been presented with an unfair system, taking all the obscure low-quality reels saved and shared into consideration, content quality still trumps video quality at the end of the day.
