Is Safari Going to Support WebP? The Current Landscape and Future Prospects

The question of whether Safari will support the WebP image format has been a topic of much debate within the tech community. While both Chrome and Firefox have native support for WebP, Safari remains a curious outlier. Let's delve into the reasons behind this and explore the current landscape and future prospects.

Current Browser Support

As of now, two major browsers, Chrome and Firefox, natively support the WebP image format. This means that these browsers are able to fully utilize the benefits of WebP, resulting in improved performance and faster loading times for web pages. WebP compresses images faster and achieves higher compression than traditional formats like JPEG and PNG, making it a preferred choice for many developers and website owners.

Why Safari Still Doesn't Support WebP

The current lack of WebP support in Safari, Apple's flagship web browser, remains a puzzle to many tech enthusiasts and developers. There seems to be no compelling reason for Safari to continue excluding WebP, especially given its widespread adoption in other browsers.

One argument often cited is that Safari is designed to strictly adhere to international standards. By supporting only web technologies that are widely accepted and standardized, Safari ensures a consistent and reliable user experience across the board. Since WebP is not an officially recognized international standard, it makes sense for Safari to avoid adding it to its list of supported formats.

Apple's Investment in HEIF

Apple has made significant investments in the High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) as a replacement for traditional JPEGs. HEIF is bundled with macOS, iOS, and all of Apple's tools, indicating a strong commitment to this format. From Apple's perspective, it doesn't make much sense to support WebP, especially after all the code and licensing fees paid to support HEIF. This strategic decision might lead to a fragmented market, with Apple users experiencing HEIF support and everyone else benefiting from WebP.

Specifically, Apple has been pushing HEIF as a more modern and efficient alternative to JPEG, offering higher quality images at smaller file sizes and better compression rates. Given the extensive resources and effort invested in HEIF, it would be redundant for Safari to also support WebP, which is seen as a proprietary format owned by Google.

Criticism and Concerns

Some critics argue that WebP is not a safe technology to use due to its proprietary nature, being owned by Google. There are concerns that Google could demand royalty payments for using WebP at any time, creating a potential legal and financial risk for developers and website owners. This is especially relevant given Google's track record of sometimes using their proprietary technologies in ways that could be unwelcome to the wider tech community.

The worry is that by not supporting WebP, Safari may be aligning itself with a broader strategy to avoid reliance on Google-owned technologies. This could be seen as a defensive move to prevent dependency on Google's technologies, which might offer unique or non-standard features that could eventually become discontinued or redundant.

The Future of WebP Support in Safari

Despite these concerns and objections, there is no clear timeline or plan for Safari to add WebP support in the future. The debate over which format should be supported is not likely to be resolved in the short term. Apple has a track record of making significant changes to Safari based on user feedback and technical evolution, but WebP support has not yet been prioritized.

As the web continues to evolve, it remains to be seen how Safari will navigate the complex landscape of image formats. With the increasing importance of performance and user experience, WebP's advantages in compression and loading times may eventually lead to broader acceptance and eventually, support in Safari.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while Safari currently does not support WebP, the landscape is complex and dynamic. Developers and users will need to keep a close eye on developments in both WebP and HEIF to determine which format will best serve their needs. For now, the persistence of Safari's lack of WebP support is a notable aspect of the ongoing debate over the best image format for modern web browsing.