ndian users will no longer be able to post long videos as WhatsApp status and we are not saying this, WhatsApp is. As per a new report in WABetainfo, a time limit has been set for videos that are posted as WhatsApp statuses. The report further states that it is applicable only for Indian users and they won’t be able to share videos that are longer than 16 seconds.
The move by WhatsApp is taken to lower the traffic on servers. As the nation is under complete lockdown, more and more people are taking to their phones for entertainment and this has given rise to more chats, video and voice calling on WhatsApp.
"You can no longer send videos to WhatsApp Status if they are longer than 16 seconds: only videos having a duration of 15 seconds will be allowed.This is happening in India and it's probably an initiative to reduce the traffic on the server infrastructures," WAbetainfo tweeted.
However, it was being reported that some Indians could still post videos longer than 16 seconds. The new feature will be rolled out for more Indians soon. Although this news might upset a lot of WhatsApp users who loved posted long trails of videos as their statuses, WAbetainfo assured that it is a temporary decision and the full functionality will be restored in the future.
It is still unclear whether WhatsApp will limit the number of videos or will apply the time limit on a single video. If this is the scenario, WhatsApp users will still be able to post longish videos albeit with minor breaks in between. The Facebook-backed company is yet to make an official announcement on the same.
Interestingly, WhatsApp isn’t the only tech giant trying to reduce the load on servers in India. Earlier, Youtube too reduced the bit rate of all the video streams for 30 days in the view of the coronavirus lockdown. The streaming quality has been changed to Standard definition instead of High Definition as this would help in reducing the network load which is skyrocketing at this time.
In Europe too, Netflix and Youtube had announced that they will reduce the quality of their streams to control bandwidth load that servers are currently facing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Netflix has said that it will lower the bit rate of all its video streams for 30 days. The company hopes that this move "will reduce Netflix traffic on European networks by around 25% while also ensuring a good quality service for our members."