WhatsApp has limited the time duration of videos that can be uploaded as 'status' in the country.
With the massive surge in use amid 21-day lockdown over coronavirus in India, Facebook's popular messenger app WhatsApp has limited the time duration of videos that can be uploaded as 'status' in the country.
In countries affected by COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have seen a huge spike. The social media platforms have taken various measures, including lowering the quality of videos, to reduce the load on their servers.
WhatsApp's status feature allows users to upload videos of up to 30 seconds. The messaging platform has now limited the time duration for the videos to be uploaded as status to 15 seconds.
WhatsApp has started rolling out the feature starting on Monday and will reach to all users in a phased manner.
The Facebook-owned messenger app has introduced this feature to reduce the load on its servers which has spiked since the time people have started staying home due to lockdown imposed over fears of the spread of coronavirus.
According to a study by data and consulting company Kantar, WhatsApp has experienced a 40% increase in usage. Facebook Inc, which own the popular messaging app, has seen very high levels of calling via WhatsApp in countries that are facing the COVID-19 crisis.
Facebook's other apps including Messenger and Instagram have also seen a huge rise in usage. Facebook noted that voice and video calling usage have doubled in the last month.
The surge is highest in countries most affected by the pandemic. For example, Spain, where over 80,000 cases and more than 6,800 deaths have been reported, the usage of WhatsApp increased by 76%.
In China, where the outbreak was first reported, saw a massive spike in usage of local social media apps, including Wechat and Weibo.
According to John Hopkins University's coronavirus database, there are over 700,000 infected coronavirus patients out of which over 34,000 have died. The US has emerged as the new epicentre of the disease with over 143,000 cases and more than 2500 deaths. The highest death toll has been recorded in Italy where the the number has crossed 10,000.
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