The Apple ecosystem is unique and unique, but more importantly, it’s the only one that offers a serious challenge to the massive Android and Windows ecosystems. Yet, we’d be ignorant if we ignored Google in this whole mix. The tech giant has a strong influence even in the exclusive Apple ecosystem, because after all, many Apple users use Gmail and other Google apps; applications for which there is no substitute. So it’s no surprise that even the most ardent Apple fans back up their photos and videos to Google Photos.

But Apple doesn’t make it comfortable for a user to use Google Photos on iPhone. A unique ecosystem comes with its own set of caveats and incompatibility is a major issue that users often face in a clash of ecosystems. What is a non-issue for a non-Apple user becomes an extra step for an Apple user. So here’s everything you need to know about downloading Google Photos in JPEG format.

The universal and age-old format of JPEG or Joint Photographic Experts Group is a universal file format used for storing digital photos. This format is popular on all systems including Android, Mac, Windows, and iOS because of its ability to significantly minimize the file size of images. Even Apple devices used JPEG format to store and save images both on the device and in the cloud.

While Apple was trying to get more exclusive with every OS update, the tech manufacturing giant introduced the High-Efficiency Image Format (HEIC) as part of its iOS 11 update. This essentially meant that all images on Apple devices would automatically be saved in the HEIC format.