Email AMP

You’ve probably seen the buzz around Google’s announcement that AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) will be used for Email. Google has used AMP for recipes and how-tos in the past. But now they are focusing on this new project, which will revolutionize Email. Continue reading to see what this means for Email’s future.

What Is AMP

Google launched the AMP Project, also known as Accelerated mobile pages, around two years back to improve the loading speed of desktop and mobile web pages. While AMP is compatible with desktop browsers, its primary purpose is to speed up mobile pages. How does it work? AMP increases the speed of loading mobile web pages by removing all the unnecessary stuff and only loading the critical content (aka the actual page). This is done by replacing the standard JavaScript (JS) with Amp JavaScript (JS).

In the past two years, it has been a huge success. It provides faster loading of pages and an improved user experience. Aakash Sahney is the Product Manager for Gmail. He says, “AMP was originally designed to assist publishers, but it has evolved into one of the best methods to create rich web pages.”

Google’s newest initiative, AMP for Email, is now available. Sahney noted that many people use Email to get information on flights, events, and news. They also use it for purchases. With AMP for Email, email information can be dynamic, current, and actionable.

Google is promoting this initiative and hopes that, in the future, other email clients will also adopt AMP. Sahney said this new spec would be a powerful tool for developers to create engaging, interactive, and actionable emails.

This will change the email user experience

If you click on an item in an email, you will be taken to a different webpage to interact with the listing. AMP for Email eliminates this step, allowing users to interact directly with a listing without leaving their inbox. It allows applications to run within your Email, so you don’t have to visit a separate webpage. You can interact and browse content directly. This eliminates the annoying tabs that you may have on your phone.

Early Adopters

Google shared some projects by early adopters of AMP for Email to give users an idea of how it will look. Pinterest, Booking.com, and Doodle are a few of the early adopters. More companies will be developing features for AMP soon.

Let’s take a look at some examples of these companies to give you a visual:

Imagine you received an email from Pinterest and would like to review the content. In the past, you were always redirected to Pinterest, where you could browse through content and recipes. You can now open the same Email, browse photos and recipes, and save them to pins. This provides users with a new level of convenience and eliminates the need to redirect them to the website.

You want to set up a meeting with your client, but you don’t know what their schedule looks like. It can lead to many back-and-forth emails to find a time that works for both parties. This constant back and forth leads to many redirects to other web pages. Doodle’s implementation of AMP simplifies the scheduling process by allowing users to interact directly with a form through their Email. This allows you to schedule your meetings more quickly by eliminating the back and forward.

Booking.com has developed features for AMP that allow you to view and update travel and hotel offers from your Email. You can also update your email preferences to unsubscribe from newsletters and manage alert preferences without visiting Booking.com’s website.

You will be redirected to a website to enter your answers if you get a survey via Email. With AMP, you can fill out the survey instantly and simplify the process. It saves time and increases the likelihood of people responding to the questionnaire. This could be an asset to marketers and researchers!

AMP pages: Why they matter

Pros and Cons

As with any new initiative, there are pros as well as cons. Below, we have outlined the benefits and drawbacks of AMP for Email.

Pros

AMP’s Interactive Update feature allows users to receive new content by clicking on something in an email without leaving their inbox.

Emails with live updates ensure that the content is always fresh.

The results of a poll can be updated automatically in real-time.

Brands have new opportunities to engage readers and create an overall brand experience.

Marketers can let users RSVP to events, complete questionnaires, and browse content from their Email without ever leaving it.

Cons

Some people worry that Google will have too much influence on the web by adding AMP to email.

AMP has strict validation rules and will not work if any tags or attributes are unsupported.

At this point, it’s unclear if AMP will work with all versions of Gmail.

Email marketers must add a third MIME type to their emails for AMP-powered Email to work on Gmail

Adding this third MIME component will require a great deal of work from email service providers and is considered one of AMP email’s major downsides.

Wrapping up

Google plans to roll out AMP for Gmail to all users in the second half of this year. This will depend heavily on the performance of AMP for Email in its initial phase. It’s unclear if AMP for Gmail will overcome its shortcomings, even if the feature is rolled out to all Gmail subscribers. It’s unclear how many companies will decide to develop AMP features. Many industry experts have opposing views and opinions about AMP for emails. It doesn’t appear that universal adoption of AMP will happen anytime soon. Some experts think that the pros of AMP outweigh its cons. Others, however, argue that AMP has too many disadvantages. The jury is still out. It will take time to determine if AMP will be the future of Email.