Google Discover is adding a dedicated carousel for Web Stories

Abner Li | Oct 6 2020 - 9:34 am PT

Google is heavily pushing an AMP-based stories format, with last month seeing the launch of a WordPress plug-in and new Web Creators community. Web Stories are now officially coming to Google Discover in a much more prominent manner.

The Discover feed is available in the Google app, mobile Chrome, and to the left of most Android home screens. It’s already populated by relevant news stories and relevant articles, with 800 million users each month.

Google is now adding a “Stories” carousel after previously only featuring standalone content. As we spotted this July, it will prominently appear “at the top” and “helps you find some of the best visual content from around the web.” Each card features the publication’s logo, name, and title.

When you tap on a Story on the shelf, you enter an experience that’s full-screen and immersive. Tap to move forward to the next page, or swipe to an entirely different Story in the carousel.

This Web Stories carousel is first coming to Google Discover in the United States, India, and Brazil. The company this year “worked with a diverse group of publishers and creation tools” in those three places to “jumpstart the Web Stories ecosystem.” In total, over 2,000 sites have already published Web Stories that are Google.

The format will come to more countries and Google products “in the future.” Meanwhile, Google will surface Web Stories across Search results globally on mobile.