Today, a user who wants to reproduce the WebP format on a Windows computer or tablet has three options: open it using a web browser, use the Paint graphic editor or use external software that the user can install on their own. System photo viewer? None of that, this one invariably supports only old formats, like PNG, JPG or GIF.

This funny and compromising – bearing in mind the popularity of the new format – the situation will fortunately soon be a thing of the past. Those involved in the Windows public beta program can already check out the new version of the system’s Photos app, which finally fully supports WebP. By the way, support for the AVIF format has also been added, which will please professional photographers. However, WebP applies to almost everyone.

WebP images and photos natively in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

It’s unclear exactly when the feature will make its way into the production version of Windows. However, bearing in mind that the Photos application is updated by the Microsoft Store (so Microsoft does not have to wait for the update of the system itself to introduce this feature), it can be assumed that after 2-4 weeks of testing, the new version of the application will be available to everyone. This, on the default settings, is updated automatically.

WebP is a modern image format that provides highly efficient lossy and lossless compression for images on the Internet. WebP was developed by Google based on technologies acquired through the purchase of On2 Technologies. The format supports animation and transparency. WebP is intended to be an alternative to older JPEG, PNG and GIF formats, providing a smaller file size with comparable quality. It is supported by the most popular web browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Firefox.