Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has admitted that the company may lower the quality of your video if it doesn't think it's getting enough views …
In an Ask Me Anything session, a user asked:
Do Stories lose quality over time? Mine look washed out in the highlights
Mosseri said yes, they can.
In general, we want to show the highest quality videos we can. But if something isn't watched for a long time because the vast majority of views are at the beginning, we'll move to a lower quality video […]
This works on an aggregate level, not an individual viewer level. We skew toward higher quality (more CPU-intensive encoding and more expensive storage for larger files) for creators who attract more views. It's not a binary limit, but more of a sliding scale.
This is likely because the company offloads less viewed videos to slower (and cheaper) servers.
The creators weren't impressed by the recognition.
“Doesn't this make it harder for smaller creators to compete?”
“I feel like this system favors experienced creators and makes it harder than ever for newbies 🤷♂️”
“That's why so many people are so tired of Instagram as a photo (and video) sharing app. The whole point of this has become purely about performance, metrics, views, and engagement – so much so that I can't even control whether my video quality is maintained due to Instagram's bias”
“We all use it, and yet there will still be tiers and a subtle form of elitism imposed […] It just feels unfair and morally wrong, especially from an art perspective”
“This is truly insane. Your users shouldn't have to ‘perform’ to get a comparable level of service from you”
“You're essentially keeping smaller creators in a prison of low quality. Stream quality is important for artists, videographers and CG artists, people who don't rely on the “talk to phone camera” format but rely more on image quality as a medium.
“Awesome, glad I invested in a $3,000 camera for my business page.”
Photo by Luke van Zyl on Unsplash
