The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) announced that the AV2 video coding standard is being integrated into browsers, streaming platforms, and development tools. Google has demonstrated AV2 playback capabilities within the Chrome browser, with plans to introduce support on the YouTube web platform by early 2027.
The AV2 standard, officially released in June 2026, offers approximately 30% higher compression efficiency compared to AV1. This improvement allows for higher image quality at the same bitrate or reduced bandwidth consumption while maintaining similar visual quality. The standard remains royalty-free and is developed by a coalition including Google, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Meta, Netflix, Samsung, and Tencent.
Beyond standard video streaming, AV2 is optimized for real-time communication, immersive media, high frame rates, and HDR content. Its support for multi-video streams and multiple perspectives is intended for use cases such as multi-camera setups, split-screen viewing, and video conferencing. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are currently evaluating the technology.
AOMedia reports that as of March 19, 2026, over 90% of YouTube's video library, weighted by watch time, supports the AV1 standard. Members of the alliance are now focusing on encoder and decoder development, performance benchmarking, and hardware adaptation to facilitate the deployment of AV2 across various devices and platforms.
