Reference

WBMP

WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) is a monochrome image format designed for early WAP mobile phones. It stores a simple black-and-white image with no color or grayscale, making files tiny for slow mobile connections.

Files & formatsGeneral

WBMP

Also known as: Wireless Bitmap, .wbmp file, WAP bitmap

Monochrome image format for early WAP phones
Stores 1-bit black-and-white images only
Obsolete; convert to PNG or GIF

Why WBMP existed

In the WAP era, phones had small monochrome screens and very limited bandwidth. WBMP stored a 1-bit (black or white) image, which kept files small enough to send over those early networks.

Modern phones display full-color images, so WBMP is effectively obsolete and rarely created today.

Opening WBMP files

Some legacy and developer tools still read WBMP. Convert one to PNG or GIF to view it on a current device, accepting that the result is still only black and white.

Related terms

Keep reading the reference.

Files & formatsGIFGIF (.gif) is an old image format best known for short looping animations. It is limited to 256 colors and uses inefficient compression, so an animated GIF is often far larger than the same clip saved as an MP4 video.General Files & formatsPNGPNG (.png) is a lossless image format that keeps every pixel exact and supports transparency. That makes it ideal for screenshots, logos, and graphics, but files are much larger than JPEG or WebP — so a folder full of PNG screenshots can quietly fill storage.General Files & formatsBMPBMP (.bmp), or bitmap, is an old Windows image format that usually stores pixels with little or no compression. The result is very large files — often many times the size of the same image as JPEG or PNG — so it is rarely a good way to keep photos.GeneralWindows