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iPhones save photos in HEIC format, which older Android phones and Windows PCs often cannot open. Converting the files to JPG before sending fixes it permanently — and you can either switch your iPhone camera to "Most Compatible" or convert existing HEIC files to JPG in your browser.
Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photos as HEIC — High Efficiency Image Container. It is a genuinely better format than JPG: roughly half the file size at the same visual quality, with support for higher colour depth, transparency, and multiple images in a single file (which is how Live Photos and burst shots are stored).
The problem is not quality, it is compatibility. HEIC arrived long after JPG became the universal standard, and support outside Apple’s ecosystem is still patchy. Older Android phones show a grey placeholder or nothing at all. Windows needs a codec from the Microsoft Store that is not installed by default. Plenty of web upload forms, printing services and older desktop apps reject the file outright.
When you send a photo through WhatsApp’s normal photo picker, WhatsApp converts it to JPG for you and compresses it. That is why sharing a snapshot in a chat usually just works, whatever phone the recipient has.
The trouble starts the moment you bypass that path. Sending photos as documents to preserve full quality keeps the original HEIC file, and the recipient gets something their phone will not open. The same applies to AirDrop to a PC, email attachments, cloud folder syncs, and anything routed through a share sheet rather than WhatsApp’s own picker.
If you regularly send photos to Android or Windows users, tell your iPhone to shoot in JPG instead. Open Settings, tap Camera, tap Formats, and choose "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency". New photos are saved as JPG from then on.
Two caveats. Photos take roughly twice the storage. And this only affects new photos — everything already in your library stays HEIC.
For an existing library, converting is the answer. A browser-based converter decodes each HEIC file and writes a JPG, on your own device — your photos are never uploaded, which matters more for personal photos than for almost any other kind of file.
Change the camera setting if most of the people you share with are on Android or Windows and you would rather not think about it again. Convert on demand if you want to keep the storage savings of HEIC and only need JPGs occasionally. Doing both is perfectly reasonable: switch the camera, and convert the back catalogue once.
iPhones save photos as HEIC. Older Android versions and many apps have no HEIC decoder, so the file will not display. Converting to JPG makes it open everywhere.
Settings, then Camera, then Formats, then select "Most Compatible". New photos save as JPG; existing HEIC photos are unchanged.
A high-quality JPG conversion is visually indistinguishable from the HEIC original. The file will be larger, because JPG is a less efficient format.
WhatsApp converts photos to JPG when you use its photo picker. Sending as a document preserves the original HEIC file, which the recipient may not be able to open.
Yes. A browser-based converter does the decoding on your own device, so personal photos never leave your phone or computer.