As billions of people are forced to stay indoors in a bid to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, social media and internet companies are forced to limit their services to accommodate for the surge in usage.
WhatsApp, itself with billions of users, has now decided to limit the duration of WhatsApp statuses when a video is posted, cutting the maximum length from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. On March 28, WEBEtaInfo tweeted that WhatsApp statuses would be limited to 15 seconds and that it would be rolled out slowly. As of March 30, THE WEEK was unable to post a status video longer than 15 seconds.
Note: some users might be still able to post videos having a longer duration.
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 28, 2020
The change should be rolled out for more Indian users soon. https://t.co/KZFhj5OMtZ
Indians are one of the biggest users of WhatsApp, with over 400 million using the app. When these many people use the app at once, it is likely to put a strain on WhatsApp’s server infrastructure.
This was seen in 2018 when Google researchers noted that Android phones were all freezing up at the same time (from the early morning till 8 am) because of the surge in “Good Morning” messages sent by Indians users at this time, resulting in phone storage getting clogged up by the image-heavy messages. WhatsApp reportedly rolled out the ‘status’ feature in a bid to allow users to say good morning to each other all at once.
WhatsApp isn’t the only company trying to find ways to reduce traffic at a time of heavy usage. The Cellular Operation Association of India (COAI) had called don citizens to use data responsibly at the time of lockdown.
“We appeal for judicious use of data,” exhorted Rajan S. Mathews, director-general of COAI. “A surge in traffic is usually seen between 9 am and 11 am and (again) 4p m to 10 pm, due to people working from home. We urge customers to avoid (these) peak hous for downloading non-essential heavy files and movies,” he pleaded in a tweet on March 27.
In a similar move, YouTube India decided to restrict video quality for its Indian users to 480p. Netflix and Amazon Prime have also tried ways to reduce the intensity of network traffic in India.
