WebM video support has been added in macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta 2

After over a decade of availability, Apple has finally added support for Google's WebM video codec in Safari on macOS Big Sur 11.3.

Google's video format WebM has existed since 2010 but for reasons unknown, Apple is only just adding support to macOS Safari now. WebM files will only play on desktop Safari when running the macOS 11.3 beta 2, and does not work on mobile Safari as of yet.

The 8-Bit reports that WebM is a niche video codec that isn't widely used today. Most other browsers supported WebM already with Apple being among the last to add support.

All browsers on iOS do not support WebM since browsers like Chrome and Firefox must use Apple's Safari web engine. There is no current indication of Apple bringing support to iOS, in beta, or otherwise.

Steve Jobs originally dismissed the WebM format, calling it "a mess" that "wasn't ready for prime time." Over a decade later, Apple apparently believes it is.

Apple may be bringing WebM support as an alternative to Flash since it was officially deprecated in 2021. Apple has also been working with Google to bring support for 4K YouTube video playback which relies on VP9, and WebM support may be a side-effect of that.

10 Comments

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

About 3 years ago

WebM is a video format from Google that provides good video quality with a small file size

Bullshit

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

The problems were:
1. Untested IP, and boy of boy do people love to sue apple.

2. Limited hardware decoding options
3. May have potentially given google another lever to further harm the free web

rcfa 1123 comments · 17 Years

Fine. I miss the old QuickTime where third parties could simply provide format plugins, allowing support for any media type in any app that was adhering to QT standards, provided anyone cared enough about a format to provide a plug-in for it.

Apple e.g. doesn’t support .amr audio, and my mobile carrier sends me voice mail as e-mail with .amr (adaptive multi-rate audio format) attachments. So each time I first need to export the file to VLC just to listen to it.
In the old days, someone could have written an .amr plug-in, and the problem would be solved. Now for years I hope that either Apple supports the format finally, or the carrier switches to .mp4 or something like it that Apple supports. No such luck.

Apple certainly took a step backwards with QTX

libertyforall 1417 comments · 16 Years

Seems like a poor move by Apple.

cloudguy 323 comments · 4 Years

EsquireCats said:

The problems were:
1. Untested IP, and boy of boy do people love to sue apple.
2. Limited hardware decoding options
3. May have potentially given google another lever to further harm the free web

Nah. While they have - due to necessity - been more willing to embrace open standards recently, Apple has historically preferred to use their own proprietary stuff and especially avoided formats used by their competitors. To repeat: they would be "meh" at absolute best at adopting industry standards and would outright avoid standards just because a competitor developed it.

They're not like that anymore - much - because industry changes dictated it: with a billion iPhones multiplied by countless combinations of third party apps they are no longer limited to dealing with a few million Mac owners that only need a few applications (whose creators knew adopting Apple's standards was required). But back then "we aren't using it because Microsoft or Google created it" was sufficient in and of itself.