Which Browser Was First to Support WebP?

Google Chrome was the first major web browser to implement native decoding support for the WebP image format, introducing initial lossy decoding capability in early 2011. Following Google's introduction of WebP in late 2010 to accelerate image loading across the internet, Chrome pioneered client-side decoding to prove the viability of the container format against established legacy standards like JPEG and PNG. This initial rollout served as the foundation for modern web image optimization and triggered subsequent adoption across rival engines.

The Debut of WebP in Google Chrome

Google first unveiled the WebP specification in September 2010 as an open-source raster format derived from the VP8 video codec. Aimed at reducing file sizes without sacrificing visual fidelity, the format required built-in browser decoders before developers could reliably serve it to users.

Google integrated native WebP decoding directly into Google Chrome, enabling initial support starting with Chrome 9 in February 2011. This early implementation was limited to lossy image data. Google gradually expanded this capability over subsequent updates, notably adding native support for lossless compression and alpha-channel transparency in Chrome 23, followed by animated WebP support in Chrome 32.

The Early Adoption Race: Opera Joins the Field

While Chrome pioneered decoding within its Blink/WebKit roots, Opera Software quickly followed suit. In April 2011, Opera released version 11.10 (codenamed "Barracuda"), becoming the second major desktop browser to natively support WebP decoding. Opera utilized the format primarily to reduce bandwidth usage in its built-in Opera Turbo compression servers, making it an early champion of the format alongside Google.

Industry Hesitation and Full Ecosystem Adoption

Despite early adoption by Chrome and Opera, other major browser vendors remained hesitant for years:

• Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla resisted adding WebP for nearly a decade, debating the merits of alternatives and format fragmentation before finally shipping full native decoding support in Firefox 65 in January 2019.
• Microsoft Edge: Microsoft introduced WebP decoding with EdgeHTML version 18 in late 2018, before fully inheriting Chromium's comprehensive support upon migrating to the Chromium engine.
• Apple Safari: Apple was the final major holdout, relying instead on JPEG 2000 and waiting until the releases of iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur (Safari 14) in September 2020 to introduce native WebP rendering.

Today, native WebP decoding is a universal standard across all modern web browsers, fulfilling the early efficiency goals established when Chrome initially rolled out support.