Instagram Finally Admits It Reduces Quality Of These Videos: Here's Why
Have you ever noticed that your videos on Instagram, whether as reels or stories, seem to lose some quality over time? You're not alone. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, has confirmed that the platform, owned by Meta, reduces the quality of videos that don’t garner many views.
During a recent ask-me-anything (AMA) session on Instagram Stories, Mosseri explained that this applies to all video formats on the site, including Reels, Stories, and longer videos. The decision is based on encoding priorities, with the platform favouring videos that attract higher traffic and engage a larger audience.
A user shared the video in a Threads post in which Mosseri responded to a query regarding why earlier Stories that are kept as Highlights become a lower-quality copy of the newly uploaded content. “Instagram has algorithms that automatically check older Stories and Reels that do not get many views and reduce their quality,” the head of Instagram revealed. This is done to save processing power for videos that are being viewed by a lot of people.
This explains why Highlights and Reels from smaller creators often appear a bit blurry over time. Mosseri clarified that the reduction in quality occurs after the initial interest in a recent upload fades, which can happen anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after posting.
The decision has raised concerns among some users, particularly regarding the lack of transparency surrounding the process. Many are also questioning what specific view count is needed to maintain video quality.“It works at an aggregate level, not an individual viewer level. We bias to higher quality (more CPU-intensive encoding and more expensive storage for bigger files) for creators who drive more views. It's not a binary threshold, but rather a sliding scale,” Mosseri responded to the Threads post.
When a user expressed concern that this practice makes it more challenging for smaller creators to compete with larger ones, Mosseri responded by stating that analytics indicate viewers engage more with the content itself rather than the video quality. He emphasized that the decline in video quality is minimal and should not be a cause for alarm among users.