Web giant Google has created a new version of its AMP protocol that will work in email clients and on pages, and has also created a developer preview of a Gmail-compatible version of the service meant to be turned into a stable build in the near future. The aim of this new email-compatible AMP is to bring the same sort of immersive and actionable content that can be found on AMP pages directly to email messages, allowing webmasters and content creators to push out all sorts of content for users to enjoy without them having to click into a web page. While many things can already be done within the context of an email message, support for full HTML and JavaScript are decidedly lacking as the protocol tends not to treat images and videos too nicely when they’re embedded into a message, and workarounds that address these pain points can be used as exploits, and end up being patched away in most cases.
The new protocol is exactly what it says on the label; AMP for email. Anything that can be done, displayed, or collected on an AMP webpage can be done right inside an email message with this protocol, and it can all be done safely and with ease. Users don’t have to click any links to view content or complete tasks from right inside a message with this new protocol, but since AMP has a number of limiting factors meant to keep things secure and fast, hackers will have a harder time shoveling in malicious content than they would with an exploit that allows normal HTML to run in email messages.
Google’s AMP is made to index and speed up pages specifically for Google’s services, and makes use of a special subset of HTML and JavaScript that Google created specifically for AMP. Because of all of this, AMP has drawn a lot of criticism from the wider open-source community. Still, since it is open-source, those who want to use it as is can do so, and those who want to modify AMP to run with a minimal amount of Google’s optimization can also do so. Presumably, the same will apply to AMP for email once it goes live for all users.
AMP For Email - GithubAMP For Gmail