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Ryan Caldwell
Ryan Caldwell

Posted on AI-assisted

Why Your Next Phone Might Not Use JPG at All: Image Formats in 2027 and Beyond

For over thirty years JPEG has been the format that people have trusted for their photographs. It is usable on all phones, computers, websites, and printers, which is the reason it has remained so popular. However, the world has changed. Today's cameras record much more detail, screens are brighter and sharper, and people take thousands of photos each year. JPEG was designed for a different era and is now having difficulty keeping up. This is why newer formats such as HEIC, AVIF, and JPEG XL are developing so rapidly; they can store the same photo in a significantly smaller file size and often produce a better image as well.

Then what kind of phone will you be using next? It's very likely that phones will continue to move in this direction. The iPhones currently save photos in HEIC format by default, and a number of Android phones now also support HEIC and AVIF. These image formats can display more colours, show brighter highlights, and store extra data such as depth information for portrait photographs. In the coming years you might cease to think about file formats since your phone will just choose the best one for each photo. Websites are also changing, as smaller images result in faster pages and less mobile data being used. The future sounds exciting and is going to be sharper and lighter than ever.

Certainly, changes take time and it is not yet the case that every application or device supports the new formats. You might still attempt to upload a photo and discover that a website only accepts JPG. In this situation a simple tool such as a HEIC to JPG converter proves to be very useful. Even though JPG is gradually being superseded, you can look forward with enthusiasm, since your photos are only going to improve.

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