Google: AMP will override app deep links for the foreseeable future

At SMX East yesterday, Adam Greenberg, the Global Product Partnerships at Google gave a talk about AMP. He said during the question and answer time that AMP pages will override app deep links for the “foreseeable future.”

Last week we covered how that when Google began rolling out AMP to the core mobile results that Google quietly added to their changelog that AMP pages will trump app deep links. In short that means when a user installed an app of a publisher, does a search on their mobile phone where the app resides, clicks on a link within the Google mobile results that could lead to the app opening up, instead, Google will show the AMP page – not the content within the app the user installed.

Google made several large pushes with App Indexing throughout the years. These were incentives to get developers to add deep links and App Indexing to their apps. Such as installing apps from the mobile results, app indexing support for iOS apps, a ranking boost for deploying app indexing, Google Search Console reporting and so much more.

But now, if you are a website that has both deployed app indexing and AMP, your app indexing won’t be doing much for you to drive more visits to your native iOS or Android app.

Google told us they “have found that AMP helps us deliver” on a better user experience “because it is consistently fast and reliable.” Google added “AMP uses 10x less data than a non AMP page.” Google told us that “people really like AMP” and they are “more likely to click on a result when it’s presented in AMP format versus non AMP.”

Google also told us that they “support both approaches” but “With AMP — and the ability to deliver a result on Google Search in a median time of less than a second — we know we can provide that reliable and consistently fast experience.”

Personally, as a publisher that has deployed virtually everything Google has asked developers to deploy. From specialized Google Custom Search features, to authorship, app indexing, AMP, mobile friendly, HTTPS and way more – this is a bit discouraging to say the least.

I think if a user is has downloaded the app, keeps the app on their device, consumes content within the app – that the user would have a preference to seeing the content within the publishers app versus on a lightweight AMP page. But Google clearly disagrees with my personal opinion on this matter.

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