Tap tap tap...
Is Instagram stories the fastest growing media format of all time? It's gotta be right?
But of course, Instagram stories came out of Snapchat stories, which came out of....
a tappable essay from Robin Sloan in 2012? Perhaps.
Where is the tappable media format for the open web? AMP stories recently came out of experimental development and now anyone can make AMP stories for their own domain. Tappable web content for everyone!
I spent some time playing around with them and figuring out how to build a (very basic!) CMS for generating these tappable stories on my own site. There's code samples, nitty details and more in the blog post:
https://tomcritchlow.com/2018/09/06/how-to-amp-stories/
For those who just want the good stuff - check out the example stories I put together here:
Amazing Space Colony Art from the 1970s - this story is based on an article I read about this amazing space colony art that NASA commissioned in the 70s. Perfect space-gaping images for AMP stories.
Why you should read the left hand of darkness by Ursula K Leguin - I recently finished this book and thought book covers make for interesting AMP story content.
Hoop loops - fun basketball gifs - you can use gifs in AMP stories!
Aren't these fun? I'm just getting started playing around with both the styling and the format and pacing of these stories. If anyone wants help getting up and running making these themselves just hit reply! Happy to help.
Tap tap tap.
(aside: yes actually I should acknowledge that AMP stories are hardly "the open web" and they are riddled with issues both structurally and philosophically. That said - it feels inevitable that tappable web-native content will arrive sooner or later and this is the best framework/platform I've found to date for playing around and making prototypes.)
All my love,
Tom
