Google will phase out JPEG XL from Chromium. The format has been supported from February 2022 onwards, but Google reportedly sees too little interest in the ecosystem to continue maintaining the standard.
Chromium M110, an upcoming version of the browser backend, will not support the JPEG XL format. The format is a successor to the JPEG format, which has been around for 30 years.
Other updates to this format included JPEG XR in 2009, JPEG XT in 2015 and JPEG XS in 2019. The removal of JPEG XL in Chromium affects all Chromium-based browsers, including Chrome, Edge, Opera, Vivaldi and Brave.
Reasons
Google listed various reasons for discontinuing JPEG XL support in the Chromium browser. The tech giant argues that there is little interest from the ecosystem in continuing to experiment with JPEG XL. Furthermore, the new format doesn’t offer enough advantages over existing image formats to accept it as a standard. Removing the format will make maintaining Chromium easier.
According to The Register, the decision is also legal in nature. In February of this year, Microsoft obtained the patent for the basic technology for JPEG XL, despite the fact that the patent application was in an earlier stage and many industry professionals disagreed with Microsoft’s acquisition of the patent.
Tip: Google introduces passkey support for Android and Chrome developers
7 hours ago
