Google recently re-added native support for the JPEG XL image format in the Chromium browser engine and adopted a new Rust implementation decoder jxl-rs to meet long-standing memory safety and security compliance requirements. At present, this function has been integrated into the code, but users still need tochrome://flagsManually open in#enable-jxl-image-formatSwitch, this is also the first time that this format has returned to Chrome’s official channel since Chrome 110 version in 2022. At the same time, support for JPEG XL in other major browsers is still imperfect: Firefox needs to be manually enabled in settings, while Safari only has partial support.
JPEG XL is regarded as the next generation image format to replace the old JPEG standard. Compared with traditional JPEG, it can greatly reduce the file size under the condition of equivalent image quality. After compression, the size can be reduced by up to about 60%, while still having extremely fast decoding speed, which is conducive to the overall improvement of web page loading performance. JPEG, which has been widely popularized in the past two decades, has lagged behind in terms of compression efficiency under modern standards. Therefore, the industry has been looking for new open formats to support new generation imaging requirements such as higher resolution and HDR.
Google took the initiative to remove experimental support for JPEG XL in Chrome in 2022. The reasons given at the time included: low website adoption rate, insufficient ecological demand, and limited significance in continuing to invest in maintenance costs. In addition, Google itself is also actively promoting AVIF, another image format that it participated in the formulation, hoping to promote more adoption of this format on the Web, thereby gaining an advantage in the standard voice.
Two years later, multiple factors combined to push Google to change its stance, leading to the "return" of JPEG XL. On the one hand, Apple and Mozilla have provided support for this format in their respective browsers in recent years, making Chrome once the only "exception" that lacked JPEG XL among mainstream browsers. On the other hand, at the end of 2025, the PDF Association selected JPEG XL as the preferred solution for embedding high dynamic range (HDR) content in the PDF specification, which means that if Google wants its built-in PDF viewer to fully render HDR images in new generation PDF documents, it will have to support the format again. In addition, in developer surveys and questionnaires, JPEG XL was listed by developers as the primary pain point in browser-side image support. Advanced features such as progressive decoding and animation capabilities have attracted a large number of content providers and tool developers.
This time to re-accept JPEG XL, Google adopted a new decoding implementation jxl-rs written in Rust language to reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities and maintenance burden through memory safety features. In Google's view, Rust, a memory-safe language, can help reduce long-term maintenance costs, avoid frequent memory errors in traditional C/C++ implementations, and clear important obstacles for opening new format support among large-scale user groups. For developers and website operators, as Chrome joins the puzzle again, a complete link for JPEG XL on desktop and mobile browsers is taking shape, and its implementation in web pages, PDFs and even more multimedia content scenarios is expected to be further accelerated in the future.