Google is furiously optimizing its platforms for mobile, and with good reason, too. Mobile has already taken over desktop in terms of user base, and that happened almost a year ago.
In order to take advantage of this clear shift towards mobile device usage, Google developed AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, for its search results. Executed in an Instagram-like Stories format, AMP is essentially a visual search experience that brings up relevant content around your search term. In a sense, it’s exactly like Google Search, but the underlying pages are mobile-optimized, really fast and use a fraction of the data and bandwidth that normal web pages would.
AMP for Gmail looks to be a very similar feature, but specifically for emails. What Google is trying to do is make emails dynamic, with plans to have embedded widgets so the content keeps changing rather than remain static once the email is sent.
As of now, you can’t access the Gmail version of AMP Stories, but you can see what it looks like on Google Search.
First, go to this URL on your mobile device: g.co/ampstories
If you do this on a desktop it will simply take you to a normal Google Search page, so make sure you’re trying this on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.
Second, since Google is testing out this feature with select content creators, you’ll be able to see a search page with options for weather, sports, entertainment and so on. When you search for a particular story, you’ll see an option for Visual Stories from those creators, such as CNN, People and so on.
The Stories appear in slides, and you can navigate forward and backward by tapping the appropriate edge of your device’s screen. And it’s as simple as that.
It’s not clear what the Gmail version of AMP Stories is going to look like or how it’s going to work, since the company is working with a small group of testers that have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before they get access. But we’re sure that it’s going to be something really cool.
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