- In the coming months, Google will introduce a smart display web pages feature.
- This will finally allow smart display owners to read articles and news briefs on their smart displays.
- Web pages will need to be AMP-compliant for this feature, which means not every site will work.
If you own a Google Assistant-powered smart display, such as the Google Nest Hub, you know you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. One thing you can’t do, though, is read web pages, which would seem to be fundamental. Thankfully, smart display web pages are finally coming to Google-supported devices in the future.
Google didn’t announce a specific timeline for the feature to roll out, other than “later this summer.� It also used the usual Google-ese when it said it will announce more news related to smart display web pages “in the coming months.�
Smart display web pages: What we know so far
We do know a few things about this new feature, however. The most important bit is that smart display web pages will need to be AMP-compliant. AMP is Google’s simplified, fast-loading web framework. Luckily, most news sites (including Android Authority) create AMP content, so there should be plenty of articles to read.
Unfortunately, though, this would mean that not every website would load on a smart display.
Another detail Google revealed is that the smart display web page viewing will be part of a new News feature. Google didn’t divulge any specific info about this, but when you consider there is currently no way to read the news on a smart display, it makes sense that Google would need to develop a whole new feature and UI to make it work.
Today’s announcement coincides with some new developer features that Google hopes will encourage game-makers, app-designers, and other creators to make content optimized for smart displays. If you’re interested, you can find out more about these new features at the Google blog.
In the meantime, sit tight for a new smart display web pages feature to roll out this summer!
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