How to open a .heic file?

HEIC files can be opened by most image viewers and editors. You can also convert HEIC to other formats online using SquishConvert.

How to convert a .heic file?

Upload your .heic file to SquishConvert, select an output format, and click Convert. Your converted file will be ready to download in seconds.

Image format

.heic

High Efficiency Image Container

HEIC is Apple's preferred image format, used by iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. It delivers significantly better compression than JPG while maintaining higher quality, but compatibility remains limited outside the Apple ecosystem.

MIME type

image/heic

Developer

MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)

Introduced

2015

Advantages

50% smaller than JPG at equivalent quality
Supports transparency and depth maps
Live Photos and image sequences
16-bit color depth

Limitations

Limited compatibility outside Apple devices
Not natively supported by most web browsers
Requires special decoders on Windows/Android
Patent-encumbered format

When to use HEIC

iPhone and iPad photography

Apple ecosystem image storage

Space-efficient photo libraries

Portrait mode and depth photography

Technical details

HEIC is based on the HEIF container format using HEVC (H.265) compression. It supports 16-bit color, HDR, transparency, and can store multiple images, thumbnails, and auxiliary data in a single file.