Google AMP Links Will Be Shared as Regular Links in iOS 11 Safari

Apple will automatically convert AMP links to regular links when shared or copied and pasted from the Safari browser in iOS 11.

AMP links will also be turned into regular links when saved in Safari’s Reading List, or sent to a contact via iMessage.

This was first spotted by MacStories’ Federico Viticci, who shared an example on Twitter:

Despite AMP being developed as a way to improve user experience through faster loading pages, people still have mixed feelings about it (as you can see in Viticci’s editorializing).

Apple’s move to convert AMP pages back to their original form could be a direct response to user complaints.

Another possible explanation could be that Apple doesn’t want to lend credence to a Google-backed technology, as the two companies have a contentious relationship to say the least.

One more possibility is that Apple is doing this as a favor to publishers – sending traffic to webpages on the original version of a site versus the AMP version.

iOS 11 Still in Beta

Apple’s iOS 11 is still being beta tested, so the company may even decide to remove this feature altogether by the time iOS 11 is released to all compatible devices.

We’ll have to wait and see what ends up getting left in or out of the final version. In the meantime, a beta version of iOS 11 is available to download for anyone who opts-in to Apple’s beta testing program.

As always, proceed at your own when risk when installing beta software. For what it’s worth, I have been running the iOS 11 public beta on my iPhone and iPad for the past few weeks without any major problems.