After AVIF, senior Microsoft exec confirms WebP support on Windows 11 Photos app

Multi-view window in Photos app Windows 11

Microsoft's Jennifer Gentleman, who is a Senior Program Manager at the company, has confirmed that the New Photos app on Windows 11 now supports WepP image format.

Earlier this month, Microsoft released a major update for Photos app on the Dev and Canary Insider channels. This new version, 2023.11050.2013.0, brought several new features, and though unannounced, WebP support is certainly one of them. We know of this because as support for WebP was a very highly requested on the Feedback Hub with 147 upvotes. Here's a link to the feedback.

Thanks for taking the time to share feedback about this - I believe this has been addressed with the Photos app update which is currently rolling out to Insiders in the Dev and Canary Channel.

Please note, you'll need the Wepb Image Extensions installed: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/webp-image-extensions/9PG2DK419DRG

[..]

We have made changes based on this feedback. Try them out in app version 2023.11050.2013.0 or higher. Check the Microsoft Store for updates.

We tested some WebP images (samples) here and they work perfectly on Photos app version 2023.11050.5007.0. Out of curiosity, we also tested two AVIF images from Link-U's GitHub repo. Both 10-bit and 8-bit YUV420 samples worked without issues. However, the Photos app failed to load a 10-bit YUV444 file (that has slightly higher color accuracy) displaying a "format is currently unsupported error".

Via: fancemon (Reddit)