Google has announced the launch of a new feature called AMP for Email, which should make communication between users more dynamic. While the feature is only in beta for G Suite users at the moment, it’s expected to make appearance on all Gmail accounts soon enough.
The search engine giant announced in February 2018 that it would begin rolling out developer support for AMP for Email. The feature makes emails more dynamic so users won’t need to open a separate browser tab to complete tasks related to messages. The feature allows users to make selections from various image carousels, make reservations for events like movies, or even fill out a form on a website without leaving the inbox. As the purpose suggests, Google calls the feature “dynamic emails.”
When the feature was first announced, Google encouraged developers to participate in the testing by embedding new widgets into emails and updating them consistently for enhanced performance. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) are already becoming a standard in dynamic design and offer better loading times than standard mobile pages.
Dynamic emails will first come to the web version of Gmail, although Google said in the blog post that it plans to also bring them to mobile devices. Like AMP instant article support, only companies which have enabled support for AMP for Emails will be able to send dynamic emails.
Google doesn’t have many popular partners supporting AMP for Gmail yet, although the list does include Booking.com, Despegar, Doodle, Ecwid, Nexxt, Pinterest and more. AMP support will arrive in the next weeks for them, according to the blog post. The feature is not only limited to Gmail. It also supports third-party email engines SparkPost, Litmus, Twilio, Sengrid and Amazon SES, and Pinpoint and third-party email providers like Outlook, Yahoo Mail and Mail.ru. If you use one of those, administrator will have to opt into the beta if you’re in a G Suite group.
AMP for Email is part of Google’s plan to kill off Inbox for Gmail for good, as the app is currently in the last week of support before Google shuts it down. One of the best things about Google’s AMP for Email is that many users can enjoy the comfort of having fewer browser tabs open. However, the new design also leaves room for advertisements, which could create privacy gaps.
Administrators of G Suite clouds will need to make changes in the Admin Console in the next few days if they want to enable support for users to create dynamic emails.
