Recently, Google made an announcement regarding the addition of AMP framework to Gmail.
For those who are familiar with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, you understand that it’s the primary purpose is to improve mobile website experience for users.
Webmasters are leveraging AMP Google Analytics to increase the amount and quality of AMP traffic. Now, this aspect is coming to Gmail too, and email marketers are yearning to see how things with change who the engage users.
In this post, we’re going to delve into this new development and share more on Google AMP for email.
Read on to learn more.
What is AMP?
To understand how AMP will work for Gmail, it helps to learn more about it and its originality.
Popularly known as AMP, Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project launched on Feb. 24, 2016, as an open source initiative. This means that anyone who wants to enhance their user web experiences can use it.
Google developed AMP to provide the best experiences on mobile devices. In this case, users don’t have to wait for pages to load. According to Google, AMP pages load 85 percent faster than standard mobile pages.
This framework allows publishers to deliver content at blasting speeds to mobile users.
To this date, many publishers, including the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and the Wall Street Journal, have implemented AMP on their mobile websites. WordPress users can also use a plugin, such as AMP for WordPress by Automattic, to configure AMP and build rich web pages.
Coming to Email
According to Google, the capabilities of AMP have expanded over time. As such, it offers an opportunity to optimize and improve one of the web resources where people spend most of their time: Email.
Google announced that it’s bringing the power of AMP Project to developers through the Gmail Developer Preview of “AMP for Email.” With this provision, developers and senders can engage their contacts through interactive email experiences.
The AMP open spec allows senders and developers to format and send email as AMP documents. It offers an extensive library of supported components to help users design interactive messages.
With such experiences, Google says that it will easier to complete tasks directly in email. Users can use their AMP emails take different actions, such as submitting RSVPs to events, completing forms, and scheduling appointments from the emails they receive.
What Does This Mean for Newsletters
Google Says that over 270 million emails are sent every day, and the number is expected to grow.
The search giant noted that companies, such as Doodle, Booking.com, and Pinterest, are already using AMP for Email to improve their experiences. The question is, what does this mean for newsletters?
Marketers are already debating whether the AMP for email will allow publishers and marketers to convert, engage, and earn new subscribers all in the same email. Some are also eager to see how this framework will affect clickthrough rates.
There is also the issue of unsubscribing and the online community is eager to know if users will be able to unsubscribe from newsletters directly. The expectations are high given that Google said users would be able to fill up forms without being directed to a form on a new tab.
How is the Community Responding
It’s no doubt that Google AMP improved the experiences of mobile pages. According to Chartbeat, AMP pages and Facebook Instant Articles (FIA) are receiving a significant percentage of publishers’ mobile traffic. Plus, readers tend to spend more time on AMP pages than standard pages.
But, can these successes be experienced in email?
Some people are already asking whether the initiative was really necessary. Plus, they want to know what problems AMP for email solves apart from improving user experiences.
Devin Coldewey wrote a post for TechCrunch expressing why email AMP is a bad idea. According to Devin, there are no significant user complaints about the current email experiences to justify this initiative. He continues to say that no one will gain anything by changing this aspect of email.
Devin claims that the new AMP is just a way for Google to expand its market share just because Facebook is doing it, too. He says that Google is using his privileged position as search giant to define the content world the way it wants.
There have also been various comments on Twitter. For example, Marco Arment notes that Google to focus on fixing common problems, such as security, spam, overload, and filtering instead offering AMP for email.
The Current State of AMP for Email
As of March 2018, Google AMP for email is still at its infancy stage. There is so much that has to be done to roll out this initiative to all email users, but a full rollout is expected later this year.
At the moment, the project is only accessible to developers who can request preview access. Developers can use different AMP components in their messages, such as accordions, carousels, and forms. Also, they can ensure their emails are always up-to-date by using things such as amp-list and amp-bind with their own back-end data.
Also, Gmail is the only email client that supports it now. But because AMP for email is an open source spec, other email clients may adopt it as well.
Brace for Google AMP for Email
Well, if you didn’t know anything about AMP for email, this post has shared enough to keep you in the loop. You now know the state of things and what to expect with this new development.
Google’s focus has always been to improve web user experiences across different devices and web properties. With Google AMP as their latest serving, it’s exciting to see how marketers and publishers are going to use it to engage their audience and get feedback at the same time.
