HEIC file is a raster image saved in the High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF). HEIC is a format that contains one or multiple HEIF image sequences. Released on September 19, 2017, mobile operating system iOS 11 introduced it as the new alternative to the default image format for iPhone. Apple Inc. announced that it was replacing JPEG files with this new image format. It has a more advanced and modern compression algorithm which allows digital photographs to be taken in smaller file sizes, and retain much higher image quality than JPEGs.