Apple is now noted as a founding member company of the Alliance for Open Media, the consortium that is backing the AV1 video compression format that’s currently being supported by sites such as YouTube.

The group was formed in 2015 and developed the AV1 format in competition with the privately-developed H.265 codec (HEVC). Its owners, the Video Coding Experts Group and the Motion Picture Experts Group, have been raising the licensing fees for its use.

Smartphone makers have started to accept HEVC for recording compressed 1080p and 4K video — the two top Android manufacturers, Samsung and Huawei, are notable in their support. Even Apple recently allowed HEVC clips to be edited in its Final Cut Pro X program. This makes Apple’s move, a quiet one by all respects, very remarkable.

With other support pillars from Google, Facebook and many other companies, there could be enough support for an open-source video codec for players online and cameras in the real world.