It’s baffling that, in 2025, Google Slides still doesn’t natively support the WebP image format.
Let that sink in. Google, the company that created and heavily promotes WebP as a superior open-source format for the web, won’t let you insert a .webp file into its own flagship presentation software.
I just tried. It’s not a bug. It’s a feature that has been missing for years, despite countless user requests.
This isn’t just a minor inconvenience; it’s a glaring symptom of a much larger, more frustrating problem. Why does this happen? Is Google’s right hand unaware of what its left hand is building?
It’s hard not to feel like this is a classic example of a company prioritizing profits over users, as Cory Doctorow calls it, “Enshittification“.
When the core ecosystem lacks basic integration (like supporting your own format in your own app), it erodes user trust. It makes us feel like we’re just beta testers for a collection of disconnected products, not users of a cohesive, well-supported suite.
Does anyone else find this disconnect as frustrating as I do?
