Which devices shoot HEIC
Apple’s support page on HEIF and HEVC media says iOS 11 introduced these formats and lists the devices that can capture them: iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus or later, plus certain iPads and Apple Vision Pro. Other devices can view, edit or duplicate such media with limitations when running iOS 11 or later or macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later.
Switching your iPhone between HEIC and JPG
Apple documents the setting: open Settings, tap Camera, tap Formats, then choose Most Compatible to capture JPEG (and H.264 video), or High Efficiency to return to HEIF and HEVC. The page says the option appears only on devices that can capture the newer formats, and that all new photos use the chosen format. Photos already taken do not change. See how to make your iPhone save photos as JPG for the full walkthrough.
Which should you choose?
- High Efficiency if you mostly view photos on Apple devices and use iCloud Photos. Apple says iCloud Photos preserves the original format, resolution and frame rate.
- Most Compatible if your photos regularly go to people, forms or software that cannot read HEIC, and you would rather not convert each time. Files will take more storage, since Apple describes HEIF as the more space-efficient format.
What happens when you share
Apple notes that when you send media by AirDrop, Messages or email to a device that does not support the newer formats, it might be shared automatically in a more compatible format, such as JPEG. Note the word “might”: that is conditional behaviour, not a guarantee, and it differs by app. If a recipient says they got a HEIC they cannot open, the photo went as-is. Send them a JPG made with the HEIC to JPG converter, or tell them about the browser viewer.
When you import from an iPhone to a PC over USB, the same page says the media might be converted to JPEG or H.264. To prevent that, use the iPhone’s Settings, Apps, Photos, then Keep Originals.
Android
HEIC support on Android depends on the version and the app, so test on your own device. What you can check:
- Try opening the file in your gallery app and in your browser.
- Consult the live Can I use HEIF browser table for your browser.
- Check your device maker’s or Google’s current documentation for HEIF support.
If the file does not open, convert it. The FromHEIC tools run in the mobile browser as well, with a caveat from our own testing limits: phones with little memory can fail on big images before the 200 MB and 100 megapixel limits are reached. Convert one or a few files at a time on a phone, and use a computer for big batches.
Sending from Android to iPhone
JPEG, PNG and WebP are the safe choices. MDN’s image format guide lists JPEG and PNG as supported in all the major browsers and WebP as broadly supported, which makes them dependable for messages and uploads.
What to do with a file you are unsure about
Do not rename a file to .jpg to make it open. A HEIC renamed to .jpg is still a HEIC and many programs will reject it or show it wrongly. Instead:
- Run it through the file checker, which reads the type from the contents.
- Convert it properly with the converter.
- For a pile of photos, use the batch converter.
Technical background
HEIC files contain HEVC image data in a HEIF container. The open-source libheif library is a widely used way for software to read them, with libde265 as the default HEIC decoder. If an app reports “unsupported format”, the usual reason is that it lacks a decoder, not that your phone produced a corrupt file. If you do suspect damage, the health check is meant for that.
Privacy while you convert
FromHEIC does its work in the page, in a Web Worker, and the CSP restricts network connections to the site’s own origin and Google Analytics, which loads only if you accept it; your photos are not sent anywhere. Location data is dropped by default in conversions; read metadata and GPS before you decide to keep it. For the format basics, see what is HEIC.