Mosseri confirms that Instagram reduces video quality for posts that don’t get views

In an AMA over the weekend, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri shared some insight into why some videos on the platform appear to be reduced in quality well after they’re published, and it all boils down to performance. In response to a question about old stories looking “blurred” in highlights, Mosseri said: “In general, we want to show the highest quality video we can. But if something isn’t seen for a long time – because the vast majority of views is in the beginning – we will move to a lower quality video.” If the video later rises in popularity again, “then we will reproduce the video in higher quality,” he said in the response, which was reposted by a Thread user (spotted by The edge).

However, elaborates further in a follow-up answer, Mossery added: “We prefer higher quality (more CPU-intensive encoding and more expensive storage for larger files) for creators who generate more views.” The comment has sparked concern from small creators in the responses, who say it puts them at a disadvantage in competing with others who have larger platforms. Meta has previously said it uses “different encoding configurations to process videos based on their popularity” as part of how it manages its computing resources.

The performance system “operates on an aggregate level,” Mosseri said, “not an individual viewer level… It’s not a binary team (sic), but rather a sliding scale.” In response to a user who questioned its fairness for smaller creators, Mosseri said the quality change “doesn’t seem to matter much” in practice, as it’s “not huge” and viewers seem to care more about video content rather than quality. “Quality seems to be much more important to the original creator, who is more likely to delete the video if it looks bad, than to their viewers,” he said. Understandably, not everyone seems convinced.