Covid-19 Impact: YouTube Restricts Streaming Quality To 480p For Both Andorid, iOS Users

To reduce the pressure on cellular infrastructure YouTube announced that it will restrict the maximum video quality for playback and downloads to 480 p till April 14 for both Android and IOS users using cellular data or Wi-Fi.

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New Delhi: As the battle with coronavirus continues globally its impact can be felt in almost every industry. With lockdowns and self-isolation imposed in most countries, there is massive pressure on the smartphone Industry and digital content platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, etc. To reduce the pressure on cellular infrastructure YouTube announced that it will restrict the maximum video quality for playback and downloads to 480 p till April 14 for both Android and IOS users using cellular data or Wi-Fi. The quality and speed of the Internet will have no effect on these restrictions. The Google-owned online video sharing platform started the resolution cap with some parts of Europe such as in the UK and Switzerland and but with increasing restrictions on movement due to Covid-19 extended it worldwide. While earlier even after the announcement users could manually increase the resolution to 1080 p, this option is no longer there. In India, it seems that YouTube has started regionally focussing on metropolitan cities Delhi and Mumbai while smaller cities like Bangalore seem to be unaffected for now. The lockdown has forced millions of people to stay indoors and most companies are functioning through work from home routines. In India, this can have an impact on ISPs and the move by digital streaming companies can help in reducing Internet congestion. The restriction is also applicable to YouTube Premium users and but is not there on YouTube’s website where users can still stream in 1080 p and 4k. Other streaming platforms Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Disney + have also reduced their streaming quality in various parts of the world. Facebook also lowered streaming quality in its platform and on Instagram to avoid network congestion in Latin America and parts of Europe. Even PlayStation download has been slowed down by Sony to decrease the impact on bandwidth speed