The popularity of an Instagram video can affect the actual quality of the video: according to Adam Mosseri (the Meta executive who runs Instagram and Threads), more popular videos are displayed at higher quality, while less popular videos are displayed at lower quality. quality.
In a video (via The Edge), Mosseri said Instagram tries to show “the highest quality video possible,” but said, “if something is unviewed for a long time, because the vast majority of views are at the beginning, we will move to a lower quality video.” ”.
This is not entirely new information; Meta wrote last year. about using different encoding settings for different videos depending on their popularity. But after someone shared Mosseri’s video on Threadsmany users had questions and criticisms, and one even went so far as to describe The company’s approach is “truly crazy.”
The discussion led Mosseri to offer more details. On the one hand, he clarified that these decisions are happening at an “aggregate level, not an individual level,” so it is not a situation where the participation of individual viewers affects the quality of the video played to them.
“We’re leaning toward higher quality (encoding that requires more CPU and more expensive storage for larger files) for creators who generate more views,” Mosseri added. “It is not a binary [threshold]but rather a sliding scale.”
Several users also suggested that this approach creates a system that privileges popular creators over smaller ones: popular creators are able to publish at the highest quality, reinforcing their popularity, while smaller creators are unable to break through.
Mosseri saying is “the right concern,” but he stated, “In practice, it doesn’t seem to matter much, since the change in quality is not huge and [whether] “Whether or not people interact with videos depends much more on the content of the video than on the quality.” Quality, he said, is “much more important to the original creator.”