HEIC viewer
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The decoder is WebAssembly running in this tab. Your photo is read from disk into memory and never sent to a server.
HEIC is the format an iPhone saves photos in by default. It is a real, well-specified image format, but the decoder it needs ships with Apple devices and with almost nothing else, which is why a file that looks fine on a phone becomes an icon with a question mark on a desktop. This page carries a HEIC decoder compiled to WebAssembly, so the photo is decoded by your own browser and drawn on a canvas here.
What the panel is telling you
The preview is the decoded image itself, not a thumbnail extracted from the file. The dimensions come from the decoder, so they are the real pixel dimensions of the photo rather than anything a file manager guessed.
Capture date and camera come from the EXIF block, when the file still has one. A photo that has been sent through a messaging app, re-saved, or exported by an editor has often lost that block, and the panel will say so rather than invent a date.
- Dimensions and file size are read from the file every time.
- Capture date, camera and lens appear only if the file still carries them.
- A HEIC container can hold more than one image. If yours does, the count is shown.
Nothing is uploaded
Most sites that offer to open a HEIC file accept it by uploading it to a server, decoding it there, and sending back a picture. That means the photo, and whatever is in its metadata, has been handed to somebody else's computer.
This page never sends the file anywhere. The decoder runs inside the browser tab, the file is read from disk into memory, and closing the tab is the whole of the cleanup. You can confirm it: open your browser's network panel, drop a photo in, and watch that no request carries it.
When viewing isn't enough
Viewing solves the immediate problem of not being able to see the photo. If something downstream needs an actual JPG file - an upload form, a print service, an old application - you need a converted copy, not a preview.
The in-browser converter does that on this site, also without uploading. On an iPhone, the app converts in Photos directly and keeps the capture date while removing location.
Decoding uses libheif compiled to WebAssembly (LGPL-3.0), and metadata is read with exifr (MIT). Both run locally in your browser.
Common questions
Does the file get uploaded to a server?
No. The decoder is WebAssembly running in your browser tab, and the file is read from your disk into memory. No request carries the image anywhere.
Why can't Chrome open HEIC files on its own?
HEIC images are usually HEVC-encoded, and the patent licensing around HEVC is why browser and OS vendors have not shipped a decoder everywhere. Apple platforms have one, most others do not.
It says no capture date. Did this page remove it?
No, nothing here modifies the file. A missing date means the EXIF block was already gone, usually because the photo was sent through a messaging app or re-saved by an editor.
Can it open HEIF, HIF or AVIF files?
HEIC and HEIF are the same container and both open here. HIF is Canon's name for HEIF and normally opens too. AVIF is a different codec in a similar container - most browsers can display it natively already.
Is there a size limit?
Only your device's memory. The photo is decoded to raw pixels, so a very large image needs roughly width by height by 4 bytes while it is open.