Instagram downgrades unpopular videos

A video’s popularity on Instagram can impact its actual quality: in line with Adam Mosseri (executive of Meta, which runs Instagram and Threads), more popular videos are displayed in higher quality, while less popular videos are displayed in lower quality.

In the movie (via The Verge) Mosseri said Instagram strives to display “the highest quality video it can,” but added, “if something isn’t watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views happen initially — we’ll move to lower-quality video.”

This isn’t entirely latest information; Meta wrote last 12 months about using different encoding configurations for various videos depending on their popularity. But after someone shared Mosseri’s video on Threadsmany users had questions and criticisms, and one among them even went further describe the corporate’s approach as “really crazy.”

The discussion prompted Mosseri to offer more details. First of all, him explained that these decisions are made at an “aggregate level, not an individual level”, so this isn’t a situation where the viewer’s individual involvement could have an impact on the standard of the film played for them.

“We focus on higher quality (CPU-intensive encoding and more expensive storage for larger files) for creators who generate more views,” Mosseri added. “It is not a binary value (threshold), but rather a sliding scale.”

Many users have also suggested that this approach creates a system that privileges popular creators over smaller ones – popular creators can post at the best quality, which boosts their popularity, while smaller creators cannot break through.

Mosseri he said is a “valid concern,” but he said, “In practice, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference because the change in quality isn’t much, and (whether or not) people interact with the videos is much more based on focus on video content rather than quality.” Quality, he said, turns out to be “way more vital to the unique creator.”