What is an SVGA file? The animation format behind live-app gifts

SVGA in one paragraph

SVGA is an animation format designed for mobile apps. A single .svga file carries the pictures an animation is made of, how each picture moves, scales, fades and rotates frame by frame, and optionally a sound. A small player library inside the app reads the file and draws the animation, so the app ships one compact file instead of a heavy video.

What is inside a .svga file

Current files are SVGA 2.x: a compressed binary package that holds the canvas size, the frame rate and frame count, the bitmap images, and for every layer a list of per-frame transforms, opacity and masks. Older SVGA 1.x files were a zip archive with JSON inside; today's players read both, but new work is published as 2.x.

Because the motion is stored as instructions rather than as video frames, a 3-second gift often weighs a few hundred kilobytes and stays sharp at any screen density.

Why live apps use SVGA

Gifts, entrances and frames play over a live video, so they need transparency, they must start instantly and they must not drain the phone. SVGA gives all three: real alpha, fast parsing and small files.

Layers can also be replaced at run time, which is how an avatar frame shows the viewer's own photo and an entrance banner spells out their name. One file serves every user.

Where you see SVGA

Virtual gifts, entrance effects and name bars, avatar frames, cars and mounts, VIP and SVIP badges, role tags for admins and agencies, level badges, PK battle effects, chat bubbles and mic rings are almost always SVGA in live-streaming and voice-chat apps.

Browse SVGA giftsBrowse entrance effectsBrowse avatar frames

How to open an SVGA file

Drop any .svga file into the free SVGA Player on this site to watch it in your browser, check its size, frame rate and length, and hear its sound. Nothing is uploaded: the file plays on your own computer.

Open the free SVGA Player