Some users have noticed that certain videos on Instagram appear blurry while others are clear. It turns out that this discrepancy isn’t always tied to the quality of the original material. The reason is that the video quality on Instagram is influenced by the number of views. This was explained by Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri.
“In general, we want to show the highest quality video we can… But if something isn’t viewed for a long time — since most views happen early on — we switch to a lower quality version. Then, if it starts to get watched more again, we revert to the higher quality version,” Mosseri elaborated.
As a result, older videos often suffer from worse playback quality. New account holders might face a similar issue, as they lack a substantial follower base; therefore, their videos receive limited views and the platform plays them at a lower quality.
At the same time, Adam Mosseri notes that this approach is meant to “show people high-quality content.” Instagram allocates more resources to videos from “creators who attract more views,” he stated.
The head of Instagram assures that the changes in quality are “minor,” and this methodology does not disadvantage creators with smaller audiences, since viewer engagement is based on the content rather than its quality.
These comments align with previous statements from Meta. The company indicated that to conserve computational resources for the relatively few videos that receive the most views, it offers freshly uploaded videos the fastest and simplest encoding. Once a video “gains enough watch time,” it receives a better encoding. As it becomes sufficiently popular, Meta applies its most advanced (read: most resource-intensive) processing to the video. Consequently, the most popular creators tend to have the best video quality, while beginners and less popular authors have to settle for lower quality.
Source: The Verge
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