VVC adoption gains momentum as smartphone support nears

Versatile Video Coding is moving closer to broader commercial use as smartphone makers, chip suppliers and streaming platforms begin lining up behind the next-generation video standard. The shift matters because mobile hardware has been the biggest barrier to deployment, and that barrier may start easing in late 2026.

Why it matters: - VVC adoption has been slowed by a classic chicken-and-egg problem: content providers wanted more compatible devices before encoding in the format, and device makers wanted more content before adding support. - Smartphone support could unlock the installed base needed for streaming services to justify VVC delivery at scale. - More efficient compression matters more as video traffic, storage needs and cloud costs keep rising across consumer and industrial applications.

What happened: - Access Advance said VVC is moving from an early-adopter phase toward early-majority deployment. - Dylan Zhou, executive vice president and head of licensing Asia at Access Advance, pointed to Android support, streaming deployments, upcoming mobile silicon and broader manufacturer participation in the VVC Advance patent pool. - Six major smartphone brands — Honor, Huawei, OPPO, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi — are already licensees of the VVC Advance Patent Pool. - Those six brands account for roughly 62% of the global smartphone market, Zhou said. - Smartphone makers are preparing VVC-capable products, with some launches expected in the third or fourth quarter of 2026. - Mobile chipsets with VVC support are expected to become commercially available in the second half of 2026.

The details: - Hardware-based encoding and decoding can make advanced codecs more practical on phones, where performance and battery life are critical. - Software support is also improving through compression optimization, mobile delivery tools and software-based implementations. - Access Advance is using its Multi-Codec Bridging Agreement to try to reduce incremental licensing costs for companies moving from HEVC to VVC. - Samsung and Sharp have joined the VVC Advance pool as licensors, expanding the number of VVC-essential patents available through the pool. - Access Advance says the pool now includes more than 6,000 patents, with more added as licensors and new patents come in. - Access Advance’s Video Distribution Patent Pool is also designed to support adoption of new codecs in streaming. - The VDP Pool added Meta and Alibaba as licensees this year, alongside a wave of new licensors. - Zhou said major streaming platforms appear to favor a balanced and transparent patent pool with fair and predictable royalty rates. - The broader case for compression is strengthening as streaming services produce more content and connected devices generate more machine-created video. - Vehicles, security systems, cameras, doorbells and industrial systems increasingly create, transmit and store visual data. - Generative AI is making it easier for humans and machines to create video. - Market analysts agree that media streaming makes up the vast majority of cellular traffic, while higher video quality is pushing bandwidth demand higher. - Cameras are also being used more as sensors for AI-powered analytics in transportation, agriculture, energy, public safety and other industrial sectors.

Between the lines: - The market is not headed toward a single codec winner. - VVC, HEVC and AV1 are expected to coexist across different uses while older codecs such as AVC and VP9 keep losing ground. - Zhou expects the biggest openings for newer codecs to come from the continued replacement of AVC and VP9, not from direct competition among VVC, HEVC and AV1. - The real test is no longer technical feasibility alone; it is whether devices, content and silicon can scale together fast enough to create a durable market.

What's next: - The next several quarters should show whether VVC moves from preparation into widespread consumer deployment. - If VVC-capable smartphones reach consumers in meaningful volumes by the end of 2026, the device shortage that has limited content rollout should ease. - Access Advance said it will keep pushing licensing structures it describes as transparent and efficient to support wider VVC adoption. - The pace of mobile hardware rollout will likely determine how quickly streaming services and other providers expand VVC encoding.

The bottom line: - VVC’s path to mainstream use now depends less on codec readiness and more on how quickly the mobile ecosystem, content pipeline and licensing framework can scale together.