WhatsApp imposes a limit of maximum fifteen seconds for videos published within the State. Here's what changes for users and where the tool is active
The first measures are coming from WhatsApp to limit the use of the Internet connection due to COvid-19: videos published in the States cannot last more than fifteen seconds. For the moment the limitation is active only in India, but it is not excluded that already in the next few hours or at most a few days arrive in Europe and Italy. The decision of WhatsApp follows the one already made by other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram that have lowered the bitrate of the videos in order not to clog too much the use of the network.
In these difficult days around the world, where over a billion people are locked up at home to fight against an invisible enemy, the Internet and the architecture of the network are put in great difficulty because of the high use that is being made. Just in recent days Facebook, owner of WhatsApp, has raised the alarm: if in the coming days the trend of growth in the use of the app and especially of calls and video calls is confirmed, the application's servers could melt down, leading to a total blackout.
WhatsApp, limit to videos: what changes for users
The first initiative taken by WhatsApp concerns a secondary tool of the application: the States. These are the timed images and videos that can be posted on your profile and are deleted after twenty-four hours. The feature is widely used in India and for this reason, the technicians have decided to limit the duration of videos uploaded on the States to a maximum of fifteen seconds. The goal is not to saturate the bandwidth and try not to "break the Internet".
The news as usual has been given by the guys at WaBetaInfo, always very informed about news concerning the application. The limit for the moment only concerns India, but it is not said that in the coming days will also arrive in Italy. WhatsApp, in fact, has launched an alarm concerning the intensive use that in these days is making of calls and video calls because of Covid-19. Especially by Italian users, the first to experience the lockdown and that to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones have flocked to messaging platforms and video conferencing.
What changes for users with this decision by WhatsApp? This is not a big change, but only a temporary solution to deal with the moment of crisis. WhatsApp has already assured that once the lockdown is over, the situation will return to normal.
When it arrives in Italy
As previously written, there is no certainty that the limitation will also arrive in Italy. At the time of writing there is no duration limit in videos uploaded in the state. But it is not excluded that in the coming days will come to us.