Android has several tools to reduce the size used by files on your mobile, but you cannot always prevent the same photos from occupying your megabytes, so it becomes very difficult to get the most out of internal storage. One of the ways to reduce the size of photographs what is done with the mobile consists of using the HEIC (High Efficiency Image Coding) format.
This format It presents a series of very interesting advantages and its biggest handicap a few years ago was that it was not openly supported by apps, social networks and websites. In other words, there was no point in taking a photo with this format and not being able to share it on WhatsApp or upload it to Instagram. But in 2024, most of the most used applications on mobile phones already support HEIC.
This format Apple has been using it on iOS since 2017 and its biggest advantage is that it offers the same quality as a JPG image, but in a smaller size. On a smartphone with limited space to hold the hundreds of photos to take, this type of image format becomes one of the best ways to reduce the size of the folder that stores photos and videos.
The advantages of the HEIC format
NOW, Most Android phones allow you to configure this format for taking photos, greatly reducing space. And even more so at a time when even inexpensive smartphones have high-quality cameras that generate photos with a size of 3 or 4 MB.
These are all the advantages of the HEIC format with the disadvantage mentioned above that they cannot be modified or used in an application or website:
- It’s half the size of a JPG/JPEG photo.
- No loss of image quality.
- Supports transparency like GIF or PNG files.
- 16-bit color support.
Its biggest problem has been the lack of support for a wide range of applications and websites (due to patents), but currently most of the most important apps on Android allow its use: Google Photos, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and many others.
How to activate this mode on Android
The steps below They can be tracked on any brand of mobile phone, and is usually found in the photography section of settings. On a Samsung Galaxy mobile, which serves as an example, this is done as follows:
- In the Camera app, click Settings (the icon just to the left at the top of the toolbar).
- In the images section Click Advanced Picture Options.
- The option is activated High efficiency images.
Here’s how to configure the camera app on Android
Free Android
Now, every time you take a photo with your mobile, its size is halved. This option can be deactivated at any time, especially if you’re using an app or website that doesn’t support photographs taken in HEIC format. Of course, the photos will remain in this format unless you use a HEIC to JPG converter available on the Google Play Store.
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