As the name suggests, AMP offers a fast page loading speed that is usually 4 times faster than the regular webpage. However, this speed does come with its downsides. AMP pages have many elements removed like CSS styles, animations, javascript, etc. As the page has to download fewer elements, it also loads faster. Although this means you won’t be enjoying cool animations, menus, and other interactable features. This initiative is by Google to make the web more accessible in areas where internet speed is slow. However, if your internet is fine, then you shouldn’t have to bear this downgrade to web pages. For that, I am going to tell you multiple ways to avoid AMP links and access the original mobile websites.
1. Open the original page from the AMP
The easiest way to access the original web page without needing to make any changes to your browser is to open it from the AMP link. When you open an AMP link, it shows an “i” icon at the top-left corner. Tap on this icon to show the page’s original URL. Just tap on this URL to open the original page.
I know this method does actually make you access the AMP page first, but if you just need to check the original page quickly it’s the best method. It’s most useful when you occasionally need to check the original page as you won’t have to make any changes to your regular browsing.
2. Use the browser’s desktop mode
Most phone browsers have a built-in desktop mode to access the desktop version of web pages. This mode basically lies to the websites that you are using a computer instead of a mobile. As AMP is exclusive to mobile devices, the website will always show the desktop version. For the demonstration, I am going to show you how to enable it on Chrome: Open a new tab in Chrome and tap on the main menu at the top-right corner (three vertical dots). From the menu, check the checkbox next to the “Desktop site” option. Now all the websites opened in this tab will be in the desktop version, including Google Search.
You’ll have to go through the above process every time you open a new tab as the option gets reset in the new tab.
3. Switch search engine
To be honest, AMP is being pushed by Google, so as long as you are in Google’s ecosystem it will be hard to fully avoid AMP. If you want to fully disable AMP and directly go to the original mobile web page, you’ll have to make some sacrifices. By default, Google Search shows AMP links whenever available, but most other search engines still show the original web page. You can just switch to a popular search engine like DuckDuckGo or Bing and browse the web without seeing AMP. Here’s how to do it in Chrome: Tap on the Chrome main menu at the top-right corner and select “Settings” from it. Here tap on the “Search engine” option and then select your preferred search engine from the list.
This will remove the Google Search bar from the middle of the new tabs and you can use the address bar at the top to search using the selected search engine.
4. Switch the browser
If you depend on Google Search for all your queries and can’t leave it, then maybe ditching Chrome browser will be an option for you. Most other mobile browsers block AMP by default or at least give you the option to disable it even for Google Search. Both Firefox and DuckDuckGo have AMP disabled completely. These browsers are also known to have great privacy features and you can switch to Google Search inside them. Although if you don’t want to have AMP disabled all the time, then Brave browser will be a better option. Not only it has AMP disabled by default, but it also has a dedicated option to enable/disable it.
Ending words
I know it’s a bit annoying that you can’t fully disable AMP while using Google services. Hopefully, one of the methods will be useful for you depending on why you want to remove AMP and access the original website. I rarely find the need to see the original web page, so the first method works fine for me. Do let us know in the comments why you wanted to avoid the AMP links.
