In iOS 11, Safari will strip out Google AMP links for shared stories

Anyone haunted by annoying link cruft will be relieved to hear that iOS 11 will transform Google AMP links back into their original forms when sharing a story from Safari. MacStories editor Federico Viticci first spotted the change, which appears to be live in the new iOS 11 beta 7.

Google’s fast-loading AMP pages are ideal for platform-agnostic consumers looking for a quick read, but publishers tend to loathe them (with good reason). Pointing users toward Google domains instead of canonical links limits a publisher’s opportunities to drive further engagement by keeping a user on-site, hindering things like newsletter signups and subscription services that can be powerful monetization options for publishers.

Earlier this year, Google announced that AMP links now load twice as fast thanks to image compression improvements and other under the hood tweaks. For the rest of us who favor purity over unbridled speed, this little iOS 11 change is just one more reason to look forward to September.