WhatsApp reduces Status video limit to 15 secs in India to cut internet strain

To reduce the strain on the internet networks in India, the Facebook-owned instant messaging service has reduced the Status video limit from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. Used by millions in the India to share music and Tik Tok videos, the temporary arrangement could last only till the coronavirus lockdown in the country.

The update comes was announced by WABetaInfo, through their Twitter handle, “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.”

It also announced that, "some users might be still able to post videos having a longer duration. The change should be rolled out for more Indian users soon."

India has over 400 million WhatsApp users.

Facebook-owned messaging platform is asking users to crop any video longer than 15 seconds time duration and only then it can be posted as Status.

At the time of launch, WhatsApp allowed 90 seconds to three minutes of video and if the existing video is larger than 16MB if gave an option to trim the length of the video before sending it.

Later, the limit was reduced to 30 seconds.

WhatsApp has seen a 40 per cent increase in usage globally, according to a study by Kantar, a data and consulting company.

With inputs from IANS