Apple added the ability to capture HDR photos with the iPhone 13 Pro back in 2021. Google introduced its own take, Ultra HDR, starting with Android 14 in 2023. Despite this, HDR photos from iPhones typically open as SDR images on Android phones and vice versa.
Thankfully, Apple and Google are working to resolve this issue by supporting a common standard for HDR gain map metadata.
Google and Apple support a common gain map metadata for HDR photos
Google’s Ultra HDR is based on standard JPEG format, packing additional metadata and gain map. Google’s implementation is incompatible with Apple’s take on HDR images on iPhones. This all boils down to how the gain map metadata is encoded.
Google uses Adobe’s encoding scheme, while Apple uses its own solution. When the gain map metadata is not readable, your device will only show the SDR version of the image.
In an article for Android Authority, Mishaal Rahman reports that Google and Apple have embraced the ISO 21496-1 standard for reading gain map metadata. Android 15, Google Chrome, iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sonoma support this ISO standard. This ensures that both Apple and Google can properly show HDR photos from iOS and Android devices.
With Android 15, Google encodes Ultra HDR images with both Ultra HDR and ISO 21496-1 metadata.
Developers must use the necessary APIs
But there’s a catch. Both Apple and Google only expose the necessary APIs, and it is up to developers to use them in their apps to render HDR images correctly. Unless the latter happens, your phone will continue rendering the SDR version of the images. Remember that the device you are using must also have an HDR display.
As of now, you can view HDR pictures taken from Android or iPhone through the Google Photos app on both platforms. Apple’s Messages, Photos, and Preview apps also support the new ISO standard and can correctly render Ultra HDR images from Android.
If you still have issues, use Google Chrome, which supports the ISO 21496-1 standard across all platforms.
Eventually though, Google and Apple’s support of the ISO 21496-1 standard should quicken the adoption of HDR photos across platforms and devices.
