OnePlus Gallery 3.7.10 beta adds support for viewing HEIC images

Earlier this year in May, OnePlus kicked off a beta program for OxygenOS‘ gallery app. By doing so, the company gave enthusiasts the opportunity to get an early preview of upcoming features and design changes for the app. In return, feedback from beta testers allowed OnePlus to continually improve its app. Since then, the company has released several updates for the app, introducing a couple of new features. With Android 10, OnePlus gave the Gallery app a major overhaul and added a new cloud storage feature. Now, with the latest beta update, OnePlus is rolling out support for HEIC images to the app.

With the new feature, users will be able to open HEIC images within the gallery without the need to convert them to a supported format first. This update falls in line with the recent changes to the OnePlus Switch app which reintroduced support for iPhone data migration. The included HEIC support in the Gallery app now means that iPhone users migrating to a OnePlus device will be able to access all their photos with ease. It’s also quite possible that OnePlus has added HEIC support in preparation for updates to the camera app, which might introduce HEIC output in a future release.

It’s worth noting that a number of new phones, including the latest iPhones, include support for HEIC output. When compared to JPEG, the format is much more size efficient, allowing users to click and store a larger number of photos on their device. The format is so efficient that Google Photos doesn’t even compress HEIC images, effectively giving unlimited original quality backups to iPhone users. In contrast, Google’s Pixel 4 series still outputs photos in JPEG and since it doesn’t come with original quality Google Photos storage anymore, the JPEG photos are compressed when uploaded to the cloud.

Thanks to XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username for the tip!