To the surprise of many, there’s actually a reason why some Instagram videos are more blurry than others.
According to Instagram head Adam Mosseri, Meta renders video quality depending on how popular the video is. In other words, more popular videos are shown in higher quality resolution. Meanwhile, the less popular ones are shown in lower quality.
“In general, we want to show the highest-quality video we can,” Instagram head Mosseri said in a video reposted to Threads.
“But if something isn’t watched for a long time — because the vast majority of views are in the beginning — we will move to a lower quality video… If it’s watched again a lot, then we’ll re-render the higher quality video.”
In a further Threads post, Mosseri insisted that the video quality shift on Instagram “isn’t huge.” He claimed that “whether or not people interact with videos is way more based on the content of the video than the quality.”
Creators speak out
Not all creators were receptive to this explanation. One described the Instagram video quality shift as a “demotivating factor” for new creators, who might not understand why the quality has worsened.
Another theorized that “if the content creator keeps deleting their posts because they look poor … their chances of performing well are always hindered.”
“We pay for our side of the bandwidth equation,” a third added, “Use it, please!”
