# HEIC Files-assist **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174 "2024-12-05T01:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/21 "2024-12-06T18:31:43Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Sure, I believe that (as a former amateur photographer myself who frequently worked in RAW). But I’ve also been around formats long enough to have seen Real, JPEG2000, WMA, APNG, Bink, etc. come and go, and later, WebP, AVIF, x265, AV1, JPEGXL, etc. They all offer various benefits for certain use cases, but by and large I’d argue that JPEG, MP4, and MP3 are fine. It would’ve been nice if Apple allowed the saving of HEIF originals but defaulted to sharing in more compatible everyday formats. The basic rule of thumb is “good enough wins”. MP3 is sufficiently flexible that it works for 90% of uses that aren’t uncompresed. It had the added bonus of being defined without digital controls. JPG has decades now of useful enough for storing anything but the top end photos. The problem with introducing a new format is “why?” What benefit does it bring to accompany the disruption? Is it so big an improvement that people will abandon old systems that do not support it? Basically, looking at a picture on the screen, for the same resolution, can the average user tell JPG from HEIC? Photos on my phone use 15GB and I have a HUGE amount of photos (and almost all are 12Mp or 48Mp JPG). 420GB of my iPhone is unused. Obviously memory use is not an urgent issue, especially as phone memory is only going to get bigger. > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I don’t recall changing any settings but if I go to the Photos app on my phone, select an image (or two, or three, etc) and click ‘share’ to email them, it’s JPGs that get sent out, not the HEIC originals. That must be something recent, since one of my wife’s pet peeves was that her emailed photos (and especially iMessage photos) were in HEIC format. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/22 "2024-12-06T18:38:21Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > That must be something recent, since one of my wife’s pet peeves was that her emailed photos (and especially iMessage photos) were in HEIC format. Dunno. But I tested it before posting in case I was misremembering. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/23 "2024-12-06T20:27:09Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Old lady watching military parade: “Just look! Ten thousand soldiers, and they’re all out of step except my son Johnny.” It’s Windows that’s out of step, they are the ones who dragged their feet on supporting HEIC. Even Android has supported it natively for the past 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/24 "2024-12-06T20:57:45Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Or we wouldn’t have situations like this OP to begin with… Situations like them getting _one_ HEIC file in the seven years since Apple rained down the doom of high efficiency images upon us all? It’s a tempest in a teapot. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2024, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/25 "2024-12-07T14:08:02Z")
Yeah, I just tested it with my phone sending a photo to my email, and it showed up as a JPEG, not an HEIC. To my knowledge, I have not changed any settings. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2024, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/26 "2024-12-07T17:52:49Z")
Eh, I guess as the techie guy in my old friend group, and who works in customer support now, I see format issues quite frequently. Yes, it’s a first world problem, but still one that could have been easily avoided. The world really wasn’t needing HEIF or AVIF or AV1 or JPEGXL. These are companies with their own agendas and purposeful wall-building, like blue bubbles, not things that make Joe Schmoe’s life better. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/27 "2024-12-07T19:49:27Z")
Too bad we can’t go back to the good old days of .WMV files and serial ports. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/28 "2024-12-07T22:04:41Z")
They say that when the guy who invented the USB port dies, they’ll put his coffin in the grave, pull it out, flip it over, and put it back in. (Then pull it out again, flip it over, and put it back in the first way). At least they learned something when it came time for USB-C. there was a time when there was supposedly a patent on JPG technology, if I recall. So there were other ideas floating around to avoid the lawsuits and royalty claims. I assume that we’re long past the life of the patent. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2024, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174/29 "2024-12-09T13:10:40Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > At least they learned something when it came time for USB-C. Heh. With USB-A, I could never figure out which way to plug something in. With USB-C, plugging it in is easy, but you never know if it’ll work. Between my Macbook, my dock, my water flosser, my monitors, and dozens of other things… all are “USB-C” on paper, but they’re all subtly incompatible. There’s differences in the charging logic (not just wattage/voltage but whether they support USB Power Delivery or not), bandwidth (Thunderbolt 7 or USB 3.2.7.9 Super Medium Speed PlusPlus or whatever), cable construction… Honestly, I really do miss the simplicity of the PS/2 and serial port days. Shit mostly just worked, and when it didn’t, at least you could play with individual pins and AT commands, not just blindly switch chargers until something magically works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heic-files-assist/1011174.md?page=1)