Keeping up to speed with the AMP project

It will soon be six months since the unveiling of the Accelerated Mobile Pages initiative, better known as AMP. The project has kept up the pace of development since then, and it’s well worth reviewing some of the new possibilities of the AMP format.

AMP is an open source initiative to improve the web experience on mobile devices. It’s an extension of HTML, powered by JavaScript, and supported by Google’s CDN. But unlike similar initiatives from other tech giants, AMP gives you full control of how your content is presented. AMP pages still look like your pages, just faster, and much more efficient.

AMP options are generally only shown when you browse with a mobile device. AMP first became visible for news results on Google mobile search queries: you’ll typically see a carousel of items from leading publishers near the top of the page. But if you’re browsing on a desktop, even if you try to hit specific test URLs, you won’t see any hint of it.

Google is steadily adding AMP capability to other services. It is now also used on Google News in a number of countries. And if you publish through Google Play Newsstand, it’s now possible to set AMP to be the default rendering (when available).

We’re also seeing growing interest beyond Google: Twitter Moments on iOS and Android now link to AMP versions, with hints of further integration to follow. Millions of eBay browse nodes are available in AMP. Socially-fuelled news app Nuzzel shows AMP content when available, and there are examples of publishers building their own mobile apps around the AMP format, such as this German news site.

We also understand that Google is planning to integrate AMP more deeply into mobile search results in the very near future. Where an AMP version is available, Google will link mobile users directly to it, rather than the conventional web page.

WordPress.com VIP has been AMP-ready since day one: indeed, we were the only tech company in the select group of launch partners. Our free AMP plugin is available to all VIPs; and is delivering many millions of AMP page views each week.

The plugin comes bundled with a generic output template, which will be immediately familiar to users of the WordPress.com Reader or mobile app. But we strongly advise VIPs to swap in their own template: instructions for doing so are included in the plugin’s readme file. (You’ll find the latest version on GitHub.)

Full details of the AMP specification are published on the project website, which now also includes a handy web-based validation tool. There’s also a useful validator extension for Chrome and Opera, which shows when an AMP version of the current page is available, and indicates whether or not it passes validation.

It’s worth following the development of the AMP framework if you aren’t already doing so: the project is under active development, and there have been significant improvements to the handling of things like ads and analytics in recent weeks. You’ll find them at amphtml on Twitter; and they post regularly on their WordPress.com-hosted blog, where you’ll also find a regularly updated roadmap.

AMP: Ready for Testing

Update: we’ve adjusted our timing and are now planning to enable AMP on WordPress.com near the end of February, to coincide with Google’s release.

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A few months ago we announced our participation in the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, an exciting new open-source initiative which aims to provide mobile-optimized content that loads instantly, everywhere.

Since then, many of you have been testing the plugin in your local environments (thank you!), and today we’re ready for you to test AMP on your production sites as well, ahead of its official launch on WordPress.com next week near the end of February.

To enable AMP on your WordPress.com VIP site, simply add the following to your functions.php file (customers on our VIP Go platform should add the plugin to their plugins directory):

add_filter( 'amp_is_enabled', '__return_true', 100 );

The plugin ships with a minimal default template, and we’ve built in a number of filters so your developers can customize the experience to better match your site—read more in our documentation.

We’ll be enabling AMP by default for everyone on WordPress.com at the end of February (this does not affect sites on VIP Go); if you’d prefer not to support AMP on your site, you can proactively opt-out by adding the following to your functions.php file:

add_filter( 'amp_is_enabled', '__return_false', 100 );

As always, if you have any feedback or bug reports, please open a ticket—or feel free to log them as issues on Github.

Mobile Theme Upgrade: Minileven

Minileven, our fantastic mobile theme

On Thursday, May 2, we will be deprecating WPTouch as the default mobile theme for VIPs and replacing it with Minileven.

We introduced Minileven back in October 2011. Since then, the theme has gone through a number of improvements including a fresh coat of paint. It works seamlessly with the latest and greatest WordPress features and customizations like header images, backgrounds, and widgets. It also supports post formats, so  your photos and galleries will look fantastic on a smartphone.

Note: if you have a custom mobile theme (including child themes of WPTouch or Minileven) or  a responsive theme, it will continue to work as-is.

Learn more about customizing your sites for mobile viewers. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

iPad Optimized Experience

Today we launched an iPad optimized plugin/theme across WordPress.com. Developed by the fine folks of OnSwipe with collaboration and tweaking for this particular WP.com implementation by the WordPress.com team, this touch aware theme is a native HTML5 experience — no download or native app required. It takes advantage of what’s possible now — touch interactions, swiping, accelerometer, ability to add it to your homescreen, and much more.

A few topics we wanted to cover that are specific to WP.com VIPs:

What Is OnSwipe?

OnSwipe is a plugin for WordPress that makes your content display beautifully on the iPad. It works with your existing theme and content. When a reader comes in from an iPad Safari browser, they get the experience created by the theme. It does this by recognizing the user agent and activating the plugin.

How do I get started? And is this turned on for my site?

For most of you, no action is required to get started — it’s ready to go. We do not modify your content and we do not require any extra work on your end when creating posts. It just happens “automattically”.

If your site has mobile themes disabled completely or has a custom mobile theme running for smart, dumb, or iPad — we will not activate the PadPressed theme by default.

If your site is running our standard mobile themes, PadPressed will be on by default.

You can also turn it on or off from your WordPress.com dashboard, Appearances -> Onswipe

How do I do basic customizations like adding my logo, and changing fonts?

Setting Up Logos?- You can set separate logos for both the categories page and the cover. The optimal size is 200×200 resolution.

Setting Title Fonts- We allow users to choose from a large range of fonts that are native to the iPad for use on their blog. The font is only applied to titles and headings, while keeping the simple readability for the actual text of articles.

What is the basic architecture of the plugin?

Everything is kept under the PadPressed main folder. That folder is then divided into: assets, themes, and framework. Most of the php functions related to WordPress are located under the framework folder. The key files to the theme and design are located under the themes folder and the subfolder warp.

How do I create child themes?

Very soon we’ll have documentation on how to modify and tweak this theme.

What if I want more customization?

We understand as VIP clients you may want more customization and functionality. By modifying the code (soon), you should be able to accomplish anything that you’d like to do. If you have more questions, drop us a note via the VIP ticket system, and we can also connect you directly with the team from Onswipe for more info.

And for more information, please check out the announcement post on WordPress.com.