When Did Google Chrome Add Native AV1 Support?

Google Chrome introduced native support for software-based AV1 playback in October 2018 with the release of Chrome 70. This milestone enabled users on major desktop platforms to decode the next-generation, royalty-free AV1 video format without needing third-party extensions or external media players. By integrating the decoder directly into the browser, Google took a significant step toward establishing AV1 as an open standard for high-efficiency video delivery on the web.

The Chrome 70 Milestone

When Chrome 70 launched on October 16, 2018, it included an integrated software decoder for the AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) format. The feature was initially rolled out for the "Main Profile" of the specification on desktop operating systems, including:

The decoder allowed web applications and streaming platforms, such as YouTube, to serve AV1-encoded video streams directly to Chrome users via the standard HTML5 video tag and Media Source Extensions (MSE).

The Underlying Technology: libaom and dav1d

The initial implementation in Chrome 70 relied on libaom, the reference decoder developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Because AV1 was newly standardized at the time, this initial software implementation was CPU-intensive, primarily targeting standard-definition and lower-resolution playback on modern processors.

To improve software playback performance and reduce battery consumption on devices without dedicated hardware decoding, Google later upgraded its software decoding stack. In subsequent updates (starting around Chrome 74 in early 2019), Chrome adopted dav1d, a significantly faster, highly optimized open-source AV1 decoder built by VideoLAN and the FFmpeg community.

Expansion to Mobile

While desktop versions gained software decoding in late 2018, support for Android arrived later. Google began enabling software AV1 playback for Android devices with Chrome 75 in mid-2019, primarily targeting 64-bit devices capable of handling the decoding workload.

Why the Addition Mattered

AV1 was designed to succeed VP9 and compete with HEVC (H.265). It delivers roughly 30% to 40% better data compression than VP9 and H.264 at identical visual quality levels. Because AV1 is royalty-free and open-source, Chrome's early integration paved the way for bandwidth savings across video streaming platforms, setting the stage for future hardware-accelerated playback on modern graphics processors.