After streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar lowered the quality of their content to 480p on cellular networks, Google-owned YouTube has also capped the max resolution at 480p. The move is meant to reduce congestion in cellular networks as there has been an increase in demand for the internet amid the coronavirus outbreak, owing to the fact that people are working from home following the 21-day lockdown announced by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
YouTube is one of the widely used streaming apps in India. Thus, a decrease in the video resolution would eat up less bandwidth, thereby lessening the congestion in cellular networks. The 480p streaming quality is set for users who use the YouTube Android or iOS app. You can no longer change a higher resolution manually as was possible earlier.
Many of us might think that YouTube should have restricted the resolution to 720, however, considering India’s population and the huge amount of internet base, capping at 480p would provide a win-win situation for both consumers and telecom networks. The content creators, however, might feel disappointed, as YouTube didn’t roll out any official announcement for capping the video quality and their followers won’t be able to see minute details in their videos.
And while the number of devices utilising internet connections is nearly the same, more users are now using the internet at a given time, thus lowing connection speeds and increasing congestion.
On PCs, laptops, you can still view videos at higher resolutions.
Earlier this month, YouTube in a new update rolled out a feature that allows users to read lyrics while listening to a song on the YouTube Music app on iOS and Android.