Categories: Announcements

AMP 0.8 Released – The Change

Accelerated Mobile Pages 0.8 version is released! You can update it from your plugins menu or download the fresh copy from the plugin repo. It will give you a notification to install AMP plugin by Automattic, so just install and activate it. We have made some big changes to the way we want to move forward, keep on reading to know about the change.

Why?

Our Accelerated Mobile Pages plugin was separate and was built from the scratch in January 2016. It was the time when AMP was just announced. Being a creative team, we wanted to do something differently, so we decided to build what we had imagined in our heads. Fast forward 9 months to September 2016, we realized that default AMP plugin by Automattic has been adopted and supported well by the community and it has evolved to be a platform and they have done a great job in the technical front.

We didn’t want to go against the community and do all the work again, which the smart developers of AMP plugin have already done. It didn’t make sense for us to move forward with the strategy we created 9 months ago and that there was a need to change.

What Changed?

The Accelerated Mobile Pages plugin now requires AMP plugin to be activated. But you don’t have to do it manually, we have added a way to make this process automatic in the plugin.

From a user’s perspective, nothing really changed. Look and feel, Options panel, your saved options, etc is still the same. So as a user, everything is still the same for you.

From a technical perspective, the plugin was re-written from scratch and is now built on top of default AMP plugin by Automattic but giving you the same features of the original plugin.

What’s New?

1. 99.5% Validation issues were fixed.

The ‘AMP validation issue’ should be an ancient word very soon 🙂

2. Page builder & Shortcodes Compatibility Support Added

This means that Divi, Visual Composer, Cornerstone and many other shortcodes builders that have relied on shortcodes will work to an extent.

3. Conflict with JSON API

Many advanced users have been using JSON API plugin to extend the features of their website, but there was conflict, which now has been resolved.

4. Carousel support for Gallery

The gallery that we add in the WordPress post will automatically convert into the AMP Carousel giving users a better user experience on the mobile.

5. Better Image stretching and resizing

There was some instance of images not resizing properly or getting stretched, which are now resolved.

6. Youtube Video Embed Support

This was one of the most requested feature from the community. The Youtube video will automatically be converted into AMP compatible youtube video.

7. Vine Embed Support

You can embed a Vine into the post and it will be displayed properly to AMP users without any validation issues.

8. Twitter oembed Support

Twitter has this feature where you can embed the Tweets and conversations to the articles, so this update makes it compatible with the AMP.

9. Instagram Embed Support

AMP compatible Instagram images and video support added.

10. Facebook Video Embed Support

Facebook video support has been added. Any Facebook videos will be automatically converted into AMP compatible videos.

11. Better Future Compatibility

This update will allow us to worry less about the basic stuff and focus on what we do the best.

What’s Next?

This update was a big challenge because we had to rewrite the whole plugin from the scratch. Now the next step is to better support for the most popular plugins and themes. And providing more flexibility in the layout and design.

Thank you!

We have received such an amazing support and love from the community! We want to you to know that we really appreciate it!!. We hope that you will continue to show the love and support with this change as well.

Over to You!

Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below. We cannot wait to hear your thoughts.

Ahmed Kaludi

I'm one of the Lead developers on this project. Know more about me at http://ahmedkaludi.com

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Ahmed Kaludi