Low engagement may be leading to poor video quality on Instagram.

In a recent Q&A, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed that Stories and Reels, which have fewer views over time, are downgraded to a lower quality to conserve resources.

The quality of the content is said to revert to a higher quality once it sees a spike in activity, but this may be creating a system that benefits high-engagement creators and unintentionally hinders less popular content from gaining traction, potentially reinforcing low engagement.

While this has shocked some, it’s not entirely surprising, as Mosseri acknowledged this potential drawback but stressed that video content quality is often less critical to engagement than content relevance.