File types are an ever-changing landscape as new options go through development and spread, only to get replaced by something better. Some file types even evolve over time, gaining new features that make them worth keeping around.<\/p>\n
If you’re a web developer, or even if you want to increase productivity around your office<\/a>, you’ll want to stay ahead of these next-gen file types.<\/p>\n As the global appetite for downloading files grows by the minute, so does the need to innovate with your files.<\/p>\n Here are ten next-gen file types you should know for 2022.<\/p>\n Before we get into the list, what are next-gen file types, exactly?<\/p>\n People have varying opinions on these, but they\u2019re best understood as file types with significantly better capabilities than a current standard. This may include better compression, easy use on mobile devices or the internet, or open codes that make them easy to work with.<\/p>\n WebP is a Google-developed image format that supports both lossless and lossy compression. Its primary purpose is to create image files that match the quality of JPEG, PNG, and GIF, but with smaller file sizes.<\/p>\n File size doesn\u2019t matter much for most end users because data storage has grown much faster than image file sizes for all but the most extreme users.<\/p>\n However, companies that host many websites still<\/a> have to care about this, so WebP\u2019s storage savings represent a significant benefit.<\/p>\n As the name suggests, WebP is mainly for use on the internet.<\/p>\n Unlike other file formats, it\u2019s challenging to look at WebP images offline unless you install a special viewer, whereas many competing image formats have native display capability. This problem will likely disappear as OS developers add support, but it\u2019s still a significant problem for now.<\/p>\n WebP may replace other popular image formats on websites, but it still has some issues with blurriness in certain areas and a lack of support for editing and viewing metadata. For now, expect to see it more on websites that display a lot of images.<\/p>\n HEIC is Apple\u2019s version of the High-Efficiency Image File format, so you\u2019ll mostly see this on Apple devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n Its primary use is taking advantage of compression techniques to reduce storage space use on mobile devices<\/a>, which suffer from limits that personal computers have mostly gone past at this point.<\/p>\n Incidentally, HEIC may not even qualify as a file type under a strict definition of the term.<\/p>\n Unlike other options on this list, which are distinct formats, HEIC is better understood as a way to encode a still image in the HVEC video format.<\/p>\n HEIC works well on Apple devices since it\u2019s built for support from iOS 11 onward, but you may have a challenging time viewing these images on other devices. If you switch between Apple and other devices regularly, you may want to convert HEIC to JPG or have an automatic conversion system available to use.<\/p>\n Apple still has a minority of market share, so it\u2019s unlikely HEIC will become standard outside of their devices.<\/p>\nAlso read:<\/span> [Fixed!] Janitor AI Not Working (2025 Guide)<\/a><\/span>\n HEVC stands for High-Efficiency Video Coding, which is a significant update to video storage and processing from the Moving Pictures Experts Group. It\u2019s the successor to Advanced Video Coding, which is commonly used by Blu-Ray devices.<\/p>\n The general goal of this format is maintaining AVC\u2019s video quality but providing better compression and transferring data faster.<\/p>\nWhat Is a Next-Gen File Type?<\/h2>\n
WebP<\/h3>\n
HEIC<\/h3>\n
HEVC<\/h3>\n