Apple uses WebP images in the App Store

I was checking out the App Store page for the new iRacing Connect App for the Vision Pro on the web, and I noticed that one of their first promo images was a setup screen with blatant display bugs in it (connect to my computer running on the sa…what???).

I saved the image to my computer to post something snarky, but it was actually something else that stood out once I had it in my downloads folder. This was a WebP image.

You can check it out as well, just use your browser's inspector on any of the promo images.

And just to note, developers are not allowed to upload WebP images. They must upload their promo images as JPEG or PNG. You can actually see that in the source URL, which is referencing a JPEG image on the server but is rendering it in the browser as WebP.

Is this a big deal? No. But as with all things supported by Google (looking at you, RCS), Apple fans have a really hard time coming to terms with the fact some of those things are good, actually, and while WebP is a good format for displaying images on the web, Apple fans have routinely told me over the years that actually it's bad and HEIF is the only new video and image format that matters. I don't have beef with HEIF, but while fanboys are battling over this, Apple is out here choosing WebP as the best tool for the job.