After almost a decade, Apple has finally implemented Google’s image format called WebP to apply a lossless and lossy compression. During the WWDC Keynote earlier today, Apple revealed the newest version of macOS Safari which will support the WebP image delivery.
In case you’re not aware, WebP is the newest type of image format developed by Google. The image format was introduced in 2019 and compared to PNG and JPEG image formats, websites using WebP images will serve a smaller file size. While it offers a smaller file size, it will still provide the same quality.
Currently, only few web browser supports the format including Google-owned Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Midori, GNOME WEb, and Falkon. With the addition of Apple’s Safari, it is expected that many webmasters will continue serving WebP images on their websites.
If you’re a website owner using Wordpress, there are lots of plugins out there offering free conversion of JPEG and PNG to WebP format. Most of them are free but there are also paid plugins that offer premium WebP image serving. Alternatively, webmasters can also use CDN such as BunnyCDN and StackPath to serve the new image formats on their websites.
