Is AMP on its way to getting cancelled? Twitter confirms it intends to drop support for the Google-backed format by the end of the year.
In an updated developer document about AMP pages, Twitter states it’s currently in the process of discontinuing the format.
“We’re in the process of discontinuing support for this feature and it will be fully retired in Q4 of 2021.“
An SEO named Christian Oliveira spotted the updated document after Twitter user David Esteve says he noticed a lack of support for AMP pages dating back to mid-October.
Looks like it: https://t.co/DPREUpjZAP pic.twitter.com/a1DI92h1kr
— Christian Oliveira (@christian_wilde) November 17, 2021
As Twitter is “in the process” of dropping support for AMP, it’s possible the format is discontinued in some locations already.
After 2021, Twitter will stop sending all users toward these pages, which many people aren’t fond of to begin with.
What Does This Mean For Websites?
Websites that publish AMP versions of their pages can continue doing so, and the links can still be shared on Twitter.
The only thing that’s changing is Twitter will send users to the publisher’s original page instead of the AMP version.
If you own or work for a website that publishes AMP pages, there’s nothing to you need to do differently.
Links to AMP pages will still work on Twitter — it’s not as though users will be sent to broken pages.
Whether you want to continue supporting the format on your end is essentially a choice.
It’s getting harder to make a case for publishing pages in the AMP format, especially after what’s happened with it over the past year.
Google itself is gradually phasing AMP out of a number of places where it was once prominent.
Here’s a recap of some recent developments in case you missed them.
Google Phasing Out AMP
With the launch of the Page Experience Update, Google made a number of changes that suggest it’s dropping support for AMP — though not completely.
Google’s first move toward phasing out AMP was removing the lightning bolt icon from search results.
That made pages published in the format less obvious, but didn’t stop them from ranking in Google.
Later, Google removed AMP as a requirement for appearing in the Top Stories carousel.
The pages were not removed from the carousel, but they’ll now appear alongside regular HTML pages.
Google’s most recent step toward phasing out AMP occurred this past September, when the company announced it would show non-AMP content more regularly in Google News.
Similar to the change to the Top Stories carousel, AMP pages are still eligible to appear in Google News, but users now see regular HTML pages more often.
In addition, Google News is sending users directly to the publisher’s URLs, rather than rendering them in the app.
That update was supposed to roll out with the Page Experience Update, but it ended up being delayed by a few months.
Across Google, and soon Twitter, users are a lot less likely to land on AMP pages.
As a result, publishers will get more traffic to their native URLs, where they can utilize features that would’ve been stripped out of the AMP version.
Source: Twitter Developer Platform
Featured Image: Bakhtiar Zein/Shutterstock
