I switched over to the heic picture file format a couple years ago (I think with the S22 Ultra) as my understanding was it is superior to jpeg in terms of quality and also, as a bonus, uses less storage space.
When I purchased my S24 Ultra earlier this year, I was looking forward to the Ultra HDR feature with Google Photos, but just realised it does not work with heic format photos even though it works perfectly fine with Samsung's Gallery app (Super HDR).
If I revert to jpeg, Ultra HDR works fine with Google Photos, but if I delete the picture from my phone, Google Photos no longer shows the picture in Ultra HDR. I found this very strange. The only way to see your pictures in Ultra HDR in Google Photos is to use the jpg format and never delete the picture from your phone. BTW, this issue does not exist with Apple's iPhone 15, i.e. Ultra HDR works fine with Google Photos using heic format and you do not have to keep your pictures on the phone after backing it up to Google Photos to view them in Ultra HDR.
Clearly, there is a bug somewhere within Google Photos and/or the S24 when it comes to displaying heic photos in Ultra HDR in Google Photos.
I think I have figured out why I lose Ultra HDR in Google Photos after I delete the jpeg picture from my phone. I was using the "Storage saver" backup setting in Google Photos and I guess this backs up pictures without the extra HDR data needed for Ultra HDR. If I change the backup setting to "Original quality", the pictures continue to show in Ultra HDR after I have deleted them from my phone.
Not sure if the same happens with iPhone 15 pictures? Maybe someone with access to a iPhone 15 can try and let us know?
Regardless, there is clearly a problem with the S24 Ultra's heic pictures not working with Ultra HDR in Google Photos. I hope Samsung resolves this issue.
