Meta announced on October 12, 2026, that Instagram Live now uses the open standard Media over QUIC (MoQ) protocol for live video ingest on iOS and Android. The deployment transitions Meta's live streaming infrastructure from its in-house RUSH protocol to a collaborative IETF standard.
Moving Beyond RUSH
For nearly a decade, Meta’s live streaming video ran on Reliable Ultra-low-latency Streaming over HTTP (RUSH), an in-house QUIC-based protocol built to move past RTMP. While RUSH performed well at scale, Meta stated that the move to MoQ shifts development to a shared standards effort where multiple implementers can contribute.
MoQ is an emerging IETF standard developed collaboratively with participation from Meta, Google, Akamai, Cisco, Cloudflare, and academia. The protocol enables low-latency, scalable media delivery over the QUIC transport layer.
Rollout and Architecture
Replacing the live ingest protocol required integrating a MoQ publisher built on moxygen, Meta’s open-source MoQ library, across applications. To avoid rewriting backend systems simultaneously, Meta deployed a translation layer at the edge that converts MoQ frames into the RUSH format expected by the existing backend.
Engineering teams navigated several operational hurdles during the rollout, including evolving IETF specifications, UDP/443 firewalls blocking QUIC on a portion of networks, and encrypted QUIC traffic requiring the creation of MoQ-aware tracing at the edge for debugging.
Future Deployments
After experimentation on Instagram iOS and Android, Meta launched MoQ after finding it matched RUSH across streaming-quality indicators and reliability measures. Meta stated this deployment provides a production-tested transport foundation to extend MoQ across other applications and explore its use for real-time interactive AI surfaces.
Key facts and where they come from
- Instagram Live now uses Media over QUIC for live video ingest on iOS and Android.
Instagram Live now uses the open standard transport protocol Media over QUIC (MoQ) for live video ingest on iOS and Android.
- Meta previously used RUSH for its live streaming video for nearly a decade.
For nearly a decade, Meta’s live streaming video has run on Reliable Ultra-low-latency Streaming over HTTP (RUSH), an in-house QUIC-based protocol built to move past RTMP.
- MoQ is being developed collaboratively at the IETF by multiple organizations including Meta, Google, Akamai, Cisco, Cloudflare, and academia.
It’s being developed collaboratively at the IETF, with active participation from Meta, Google, Akamai, Cisco, Cloudflare, and academia.
