Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is limiting the duration of videos uploaded as ‘Status’ to 15 seconds to reduce bandwidth consumption in India, according to reports.
The time-limit for videos that could be posted as a WhatsApp status has been reduced to 15 seconds from 30 seconds, WABetaInfo said in a tweet.
“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,” said the tweet.
WhatsApp had allowed 90 seconds to three minutes video at the time of its launch. The limit was later reduced to 30 seconds. Now, it has futher reduced to 15 seconds to less the load on internet networks as people across the nation have been mandated to work from home post a 21-day lockdown.
The lockdown was announced on March 24 in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Digital players including social media platforms and telecom companies in the country have taken measures to ensure better internet services amid increased usage.
On March 25, digital players including Netflix, Google, Amazon, Disney and Facebook had decided to immediately adopt measures to minimize traffic on networks. This included temporarily defaulting HD and ultra-HD streaming to SD content or offering only SD content for their social media and video-streaming platforms.
Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp is pitching in to further reduce internet consumption as it sees a global surge in usage by over 40 per cent as per a report by Kantar. WhatsApp has seen a major increase in usage especially in regions most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic as per the report.