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Image MIME Reference
AVCS

AVC Image Sequence (HEIF Container)

image/avcs
VS

Wireless Bitmap

image/vnd.wap.wbmp
WBMP

A complete technical comparison of AVC Image Sequence (HEIF Container) and Wireless Bitmap — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature AVCS WBMP
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
AVC Image Sequence (HEIF Container)
image/avcs
Extension
.avcs.heifs
Container HEIF / ISOBMFF (ISO/IEC 14496-12)
Compression Lossy / Lossless
Algorithm
AVC (Advanced Video Coding / H.264)
Color Depth 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit
Developed by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) / ISO/IEC JTC 1
Released 2015
Magic Bytes
XX XX XX XX 66 74 79 70 61 76 63 73
Full AVCS reference →
Wireless Bitmap
image/vnd.wap.wbmp
Extension
.wbmp
Container WBMP Type 0
Compression Uncompressed
Algorithm
None
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome)
Developed by WAP Forum (Now Open Mobile Alliance)
Released 1999
Magic Bytes
00 00
Full WBMP reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser AVCS WBMP
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
AVCS

AVCS Strengths

  • Efficiently stores bursts of images or animations utilizing inter-frame compression
  • Leverages the highly compatible and widely hardware-accelerated AVC (H.264) codec
  • Robust HEIF container supports extensive metadata, alpha channels, and depth maps
Limitations
  • Zero native support in web browsers
  • Largely superseded in efficiency by newer sequence formats like HEICS (HEVC) or Animated AVIF (AV1)
  • Complicated container structure requires specialized parsing libraries
WBMP

WBMP Strengths

  • Extremely low processing overhead made it perfectly suited for the ultra-low-power CPUs of late 1990s mobile devices
  • Tightly integrated into the WML (Wireless Markup Language) stack, enabling the first functional mobile internet experiences
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete and lacks support in modern operating systems and browsers
  • Limited entirely to 1-bit black and white (0 for black, 1 for white) with zero support for grayscale, color, or transparency
  • The lack of a strong file header signature makes automated MIME type detection highly unreliable

When to choose which format

AVCS
Use AVCS when…
  • Burst Photography
  • Short Animations
  • Camera Capture
  • Archival Storage
WBMP
Use WBMP when…
  • Legacy WML (Wireless Markup Language) Mobile Sites
  • Early Mobile Phone Icons and Operator Logos
  • Historical WAP Archival

More comparisons

AVCS vs ACES → WBMP vs ACES → AVCS vs APNG → WBMP vs APNG → AVCS vs AVCI → WBMP vs AVCI → AVCS vs AVIF → WBMP vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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