- "Optimizations" to Android from Google or Samsung throttling the quality - Overloading of Meta infra due to the recent maddening surge of business accounts - "Optimizations" from Meta for example reducing infra usage or using untested compression, e.g. ML-based schemes - Deliberate quality reduction from Meta in an effort to lead users to (future) paid plans
Speaking to friends and family the issue happens on iOS too so not a platform issue. It could be overloading but I'd be surprised Meta has not detected it themselves and I could find at least one StackOverlfow thread with someone suggesting a bug in Meta cloud API being used by business too so its not just the free consumers. It has been going long enough to backfire if a paid plan was the real alternative. WhatsApp has great penetration, especially in India and it would be foolish of them to push users away towards alternatives like Telegram.
It's a pity, because it used to be very close to an ideal messenger, from a usability perspective.
More generally, these days I find that there just really isn't any good single messenger or social media that most sane people are happy to use these days.
WhatsApp is getting spammy and is owned by Meta.
Facebook is full of spam too, and it's difficult to just use the messenger without also having a screen full of other spam next to it. Also the cool kids don't use / aren't on facebook now.
Telegram is still pretty good to use, but doesn't have the adoption that WhatsApp / FB once did.
Skype, MSN, Yahoo chat, MSN, ICQ, etc. all dead now.
It seems like it's just not possible to have a stable messenger that doesn't get slurped up into some bigger thing, then destroyed. Oh well.