3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3GUMTSmultimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones. 3G2 is a multimedia container format defined by the 3GPP2 for 3G CDMA2000 multimedia services. It is very similar to the 3GP file format but consumes less space & bandwidth also has some extensions and limitations in comparison to 3GP.
The 3GP and 3G2 file formats are both structurally based on the ISO base media file format defined in ISO/IEC 14496-12 – MPEG-4 Part 12, but older versions of the 3GP file format did not use some of its features. 3GP and 3G2 are container formats similar to MPEG-4 Part 14, which is also based on MPEG-4 Part 12. The 3GP and 3G2 file format were designed to decrease storage and bandwidth requirements to accommodate mobile phones. They are good for lower end smartphones for faster streaming & download. 3GP and 3G2 are similar standards, but with some differences:
3GPP file format was designed for GSM-based phones and may have the filename extension.3gp
3GPP2 file format was designed for CDMA-based phones and may have the filename extension .3g2
Some cell phones use the.mp4 extension for 3GP video.
3GP
The 3GP file format stores video streams as MPEG-4 Part 2, H.263, or MPEG-4 Part 10, and audio streams as AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, AAC-LC, HE-AAC v1 or Enhanced aacPlus. 3GPP allowed use of AMR and H.263 codecs in the ISO base media file format, because 3GPP specified the usage of the Sample Entry and template fields in the ISO base media file format as well as defining new boxes to which codecs refer. These extensions were registered by the registration authority for code-points in ISO base media file format. For the storage of MPEG-4 media specific information in 3GP files, the 3GP specification refers to MP4 and the AVC file format, which are also based on the ISO base media file format. The MP4 and the AVC file format specifications described usage of MPEG-4 content in the ISO base media file format. A 3GP file is always big-endian, storing and transferring the most significant bytes first.
3G2
The 3G2 file format can store the same video streams and most of the audio streams used in the 3GP file format. In addition, 3G2 stores audio streams as EVRC, EVRC-B, EVRC-WB, 13K, SMV or VMR-WB, which was specified by 3GPP2 for use in ISO base media file format. The 3G2 specification also defined some enhancements to 3GPP Timed Text. 3G2 file format does not store Enhanced aacPlus and AMR-WB+ audio streams. For the storage of MPEG-4 media in 3G2 files, the 3G2 specification refers to the MP4 file format and the AVC file format specification, which described usage of this content in the ISO base media file format. For the storage of H.263 and AMR content 3G2 specification refers to the 3GP file format specification.
Device support
Most 3G capable mobile phones support the playback and recording of video in 3GP format.
Some newer/higher-end phones without 3G capabilities may also playback and record in this format.
Audio imported from CD onto a PlayStation 3 when it is set to encode to the MPEG-4 AAC format copies onto USB devices in the 3GP format.
Apple iDevices used to support files for playback only as passthrough files, hence no editing ability, but since iOS 9 this has been deprecated meaning files of this format have to be manually converted to H.264.
