Ask HN: Just learned about AMP (interactive emails). Why aren't people using it?

by ayugarg567 on 9/5/2024, 8:52:36 AM with 10 comments
So AMP and interactive emails are basically emails that can do more stuff right in your inbox. Instead of just showing you info, they let you actually do things without leaving the email. Say you get an email from an online store. With this tech, you could scroll through products, pick sizes, and even add stuff to your cart, all inside the email. Or if it's a work thing, maybe you're learning some new software. The email could have little tutorial steps you can click through. Could be anything really. But why is it that people and companies are not using it?

  • by genezeta on 9/5/2024, 9:36:15 AM

    One reason is that it's not widely supported. If you look in the official AMP page it only manages to mention 4 email clients supporting it.

    But also, because AMP in general is mostly forgotten and abandoned since it a. is no longer used as a SEO factor, b. was dropped from use in most places, and c. wasn't a well liked idea anyway.

  • by solardev on 9/5/2024, 5:19:27 PM

    AMP was a somewhat popular experiment back in 2015-2010 or so, when it first launched, but it didn't last. From 2021 onwards it gradually declined and I'd consider it pretty much deprecated by now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages#Decli...

    The AMP email stuff was just a side add-on to the main AMP web pages effort, but when that web stuff died, the email stuff didn't have much of a chance to stand on its own.

    It's too proprietary and too niche, Google's failed attempt to reinvent web pages and emails for their own benefit.

  • by g3mo on 9/5/2024, 9:30:24 AM

    Oh, I've always loved these emails that have interactivity built in. Specifically, I have thoroughly enjoyed emails that I get from Google Docs that shows the edits that other people have made on the document that I shared with them. It gives me the option of commenting and submitting my comment there itself. This has been an extremely solid user experience.

    While I know that since Gmail is a Google property and that kind of experience cannot be delivered by emails sent by others, I've often wondered why other products haven't used this functionality as much.

    Curious to see what all can be done.

    Can anyone share examples of other products doing this really well?

  • by anurag619 on 9/5/2024, 12:56:05 PM

    Lack of browser support can be the biggest reason. ref: https://www.mailmodo.com/guides/amp-email-support/

  • by arcui on 9/5/2024, 9:10:34 AM

    I think it has a great potential with what you have explained but companies need to hire the right talent to execute on it as it's always going to be on the client end to execute it right.

  • by harshactually on 9/5/2024, 8:59:51 AM

    I think people are using it, marketeers use it, there are some softwares available, solving for this.

    But hell lot of interesting use-cases to be solved for, across departments, Sales, CS, HR.

    They are under-utilised for sure.

  • by goforbg on 9/5/2024, 8:59:36 AM

    It only works in Gmail, harder to implement by yourself without a tool like mailmodo

  • by arvindhsundar on 9/5/2024, 8:56:55 AM

    First I've heard of this

  • by ayushchat on 9/5/2024, 12:54:05 PM

    first time hearing about amp.