Google is making it easier for creators to tell visually-rich short stories on mobile with the announcement that its new Web Stories plugin for WordPress is now in public beta.
The new plugin is essentially a custom editor that will allow users to create AMP-powered stories directly from within WordPress.
These stories can be used to deliver news and other information alongside photos and videos in a way that site visitors can easily consume.
As more users are browsing the web on mobile than on desktop, the way in which many people engage with online content has changed. Google’s Web Stories plugin will give creators the ability to create bite-sized pieces of content that viewers can more easily peruse than they could with longer form content.
Web Stories plugin
From the examples on Google’s GitHub page, each story will likely use either an image or a video in the background with text laid on top to help grab the attention of viewers though there are no hard rules on how creators can use the plugin.
Unlike other WordPress plugins, Web Stories has taken an almost completely custom approach for creating content within the CMS with its own drag-and-drop editor, custom URLs and a dashboard for editing stories as well as finding templates. The beta of the plugin also contains eight starter templates to choose from which can be used for beauty, cooking, DIY, entertainment, fashion, fitness, travel or well being content.
The Web Stories plugin will officially be released sometime at the end of this summer but interested users can download the beta now.
Via WPTavern
