Articulate Mobile Player (AMP) End Support?

I have to agree with Salvador.  I too am disappointed with the discontinuation of support for offline playback. The availability of AMP for IOS and Android and it's offline playback capability was the primary reason for my company choosing Storyline 2 originally and subsequently acquiring multiple subscriptions of Articulate 360. 

I understand, Adobe's discontinuation of Flash as being your stated reason for discontinuing AMP. On the surface one might read that and say "oh well, unfortunate, but nothing Articulate can do about that".  However it makes me wonder what prevents Articulate from investing in developing an updated version of AMP in which it does not rely on Flash? Is it simply a business decision not to put development resources into offline mobile playback because not enough of your customers will object to losing that capability?

Thanks
Gary

Hi Gary!

Fortunately, we've been preparing for discontinuing Flash for some time to make sure all of those who rely on the Articulate Mobile Player have a better option.

With Articulate 360, there is no need to use the Articulate Mobile Player since the Modern Player is a fully responsive design. This means that you no longer have to take an extra step to publish the course for Articulate Mobile Player. Your mobile devices will configure automatically so the content is displayed perfectly.

Although it is sad to say goodbye to the Articulate Mobile Player, we've perfected Articulate 360 so it's fully responsive without downloading an additional app.

If you have any additional questions about what this means for other programs, please let us know!

Hello Lauren,

I don't think you understood my comments or those of the original poster. It was not about formatting of the content so it is sized correctly to play on various mobile devices. It was about the ability to play content on a mobile device when access to a server is not possible.  

Does the Modern Player with responsive design allow my Storyline 360 content to play when there is no internet access? If not, then it is way more than just sad to say goodbye to the Articulate Mobile Player. At least to me it is. 

You mention that Articulate has been preparing for the discontinuation of Flash for some time. Does that preparation you speak of include the ability to play content offline? 

Gary

Hi Gary!

I apologize if I was off-base! Thanks for clarifying!

That's right, the Modern Player addresses the design concerns for the removal of the Articulate Mobile Player.

Offline viewing is another part of the Articulate Mobile Player which you brought up. We are preparing for how this is going to affect those who rely on the app to view content when the internet is not available.

I don't have any public details to share right now but if there are any specifics that I can pass along to our Engineers I'm happy to do so. You can either reply here or contact us through a support case. Either way, we'll get your comments in the right hands.

No worries Lauren! 

Hopefully your engineers will come up with a workable alternative to offline delivery that is easy to use for the end user (like AMP is already) . I've enjoyed authoring content in Storyline the last several years, but unfortunately offline delivery is that important to us. Losing that functionality entirely will reluctantly force us to look for alternatives. 

Hi Lauren,

Able to give any updates on this topic of how we can download view Modules offline?

Thanks!

Hello David,

Thanks for reaching out!

We are actively tracking requests for new ways to allow learners to access an offline version of a course. We haven't made any development decisions as of yet, but we will update you here if we make a change that will help. 

Let me know if there's anything else I can do. I'm happy to help!

This response sounds quite different than where Lauren says above  "We are preparing for how this is going to affect those who rely on the app to view content when the internet is not available."  

This recent response makes it appear that Articulate is now treating offline playback on mobile devices, not as an existing relied upon feature by Storyline users for many years, but as a "new feature" that has to be requested by enough existing users. 

Given that we are only 5 months away from when you have stated you will pull support for AMP, and you are not already engineering a solution as implied previously, but instead asking for a "feature request" for it, it appears the writing is on the wall. 

So that leaves me with two questions:
1. How long will the AMP player remain on the App Store and Play Store after 12/31/20?
2. Will Storyline updates after 12/31/20 have the AMP publishing option removed?

Answers to these two questions will help me a lot in determining how long I have to find an alternative authoring solution.

Thanks
Gary

Hi Gary!

Happy to offer more information! As we've learned more about the removal of Flash in the past few months, we've had to pivot our plans. 

Articulate Mobile Player (AMP) courses rely on Flash output, so we’ll end support for the AMP app on December 31, 2020.

• How long will the AMP player remain on the App Store and Play Store after 12/31/20?
  • Great question! We don't have an exact timeframe yet because it depends on when those stores will remove it, but we'll let you know as soon as we do.  Since operating systems plan to disable Flash at the end of 2020, we don’t expect AMP to continue working after that. 
•  Will Storyline updates after 12/31/20 have the AMP publishing option removed?
  • Our plan is to phase it out over time! There are many factors involved since other applications will also be affected. Since Flash will be removed by Microsoft in the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021,  we'll use that timing to remove the option from our tools. We plan to keep everyone informed so they are prepared when we make the switch.

Thanks for taking the time to follow up, Gary! We're happy to help if you have more questions.

Thank you for those responses Lauren. They are helpful. 

Would you say come 1/1/21 with support for AMP gone, that it would be a safe, or at least a logical  assumption that an Articulate supported offline playback method for tablets will not exist? 

Thanks
Gary

I agree with Gary. This is not a new feature request. This is a feature that has been supported for years. Many of us chose this tool because of this feature and our programs rely on it.

I have a question. Why is Articulate scrapping a great feature that obviously many people use? I realize AMP relies on Flash but so did a lot of other things.

Just update the app?

Another vote for updating the AMP app to support HTML5 export. We have been using this feature extensively for years for our clients to use modules in locations with no or unreliable wifi ... offshore, inductions at security points, even in classrooms. It is just a much more robust method as often wifi drops out or has trouble keeping up video streaming bitrates.

Offline is definitely required, and as mentioned above I think it should be treated by Articulate as a necessary upgrade of an exisiting feature.

My company makes extensive use of offline learning via the AMP. For a while there I thought there might be a trend away from offline learning and reliance primarily on Wifi and 4/5G for course delivery. That was a misconception on my part. The trend I've seen over the past few years is that offline learning is becoming even more popular given the mobility of learners and their desire to access eLearning anywhere and anytime while using their mobile phones or tablet devices. I have customers that listen to eLearning courses while driving, similar to how they'd listen to an audiobook. Other customers enjoy eLearning courses while traveling on airplanes, and so on. Given the complexity and extensive use of videos in my courses, 4G streaming to an iPhone doesn't work very well. Please ask your engineers to provide an HTML replacement for the AMP. As it stands now, I'm actively looking for an app that allows affordable delivery of my courses offline via a mobile device. Offline learning is essential for my business.

Thank you,
Rod Machado

My company makes extensive use of offline learning via the AMP. For a while there I thought there might be a trend away from offline learning and reliance primarily on Wifi and 4/5G for course delivery. That was a misconception on my part. The trend I've seen over the past few years is that offline learning is becoming even more popular given the mobility of learners and their desire to access eLearning anywhere and anytime while using their mobile phones or tablet devices. I have customers that listen to eLearning courses while driving, similar to how they'd listen to an audiobook. Other customers enjoy eLearning courses while traveling on airplanes, and so on. Given the complexity and extensive use of videos in my courses, 4G streaming to an iPhone doesn't work very well. Please ask your engineers to provide an HTML replacement for the AMP. As it stands now, I'm actively looking for an app that allows affordable delivery of my courses offline via a mobile device. Offline learning is essential for my business.

Thank you,
Rod Machado

We are also working on some learning that we will need the option for the user to view offline based on their location/connection. Please ask your engineers to provide any HTML replacement for AMP. Any other options out there?

I also rely heavily on the offline capabilities of the articulate mobile player. There are a few existing apps that I have found recently that will play the courses offline - most file manager apps do not. Document GoGo (although the player is tiny) is one that works and My File Manager (has adverts though) is another. However, because you need to zip a published web version to get this to work offline, the user then has access to your entire file structure including copyright images and sound files etc. Does anyone know of a way to hide/encrypt the files/folders within the zip so that only the story.html file is visible/accesible?

Greetings Helena and Eric:
I have eLearning courses built with Storyline and they're offered for offline use via the Articulate Mobile player. My customers enjoy that flexibility. So I'm concerned about continuing that service. I tried the "My File Manager" app and it works to download videos, but the questions embedded in each course are missing. There's no practical similarity or course structure here other than videos, which doesn't suit my needs, unfortunately.

Fortunately, I do have a LMS using LearnDash that also hosts my Storyline-created courses as .zip files. It turns out that there might be two opportunities (that I've found so far) that might allow me to create an App for my courses that allows downloading via my LMS. I'm checking into this now. Here are the two links you might want to check out.

1. Use an app builder platform (https://apppresser.com/). 
2. Get an app custom-developed (https://appboss.com/learndash-mobile-app-case-study-for-editsu/).

The folks at BuddyBoss have just redesigned a mobile app that might have downloadable features. I'm waiting to hear from them. Ultimately, I might have to hire someone to design an App to offer my courses offline.

And please let me know if you find any additional information regarding downloads.

Sincerely,
Rod Machado
www.rodmachado.com

Thank you for this Rod. I will look into the links you have provided. 

Did you link to a zipped version of the web published content when using my file manager? My modules work perfectly, its just that they would have access to all the other folders. You also need to launch with the story.html file. 

I am really interested to see what Buddyboss have to say and I wondered whether there may be enough people interested in working together to hire somebody to create an alternative to amp? 

I will continue to dig and update on here with anything useful. 

Best wishes 

Helena 

Greetings Helena:

Yes, I did try File Manager with a zipped file. And I did access the "story.html" file, too. It works fine for showing despite creating a static image of the first frame on each video and placing this between each video. This isn't, however, the kind of tool that would be useful for me. It turns out that AppPresser is an App creation site that allows the import of a LearnDash site (the LMS I use to support all my video content). Once the LMS is imported into the app (and it looks nice, too), the students can download videos directly to their device (see link below). Creating this app using AppPresser's software is relatively easy and much less expensive than most other App creation software. But, this is just one option.

I think the upcoming Buddyboss App (due out this month) looks promising.

That said, I would be interested in the creation of an app with a clean interface that could allow downloading of Storyline content. Sharing the cost on this would certainly make this more affordable. Please keep me posted.

LINK: https://docs.apppresser.com/article/425-download-media-from-wordpress 

Sincerely,
Rod Machado
rod@rodmachado.com

But this is NOT a new feature request. This is a continuation of a feature that seems to have been a major selling point for your product for a lot of us who chose to purchase Articulate.

Greetings Ruth:
I agree, and the above discussion was speculation on how we might find an alternate solution for downloads. Here's the email I sent to Articulate requesting that the company reconsider creating an HTML5 version of the AMP that continues to allow downloads. It would be helpful if other users were to send similar emails directly to the company.

______________________________________

Greetings Folks:

I've been a loyal Storyline/Articulate user since 2015. I use Storyline exclusively to create all my eLearning courses. One of the attractive features that Articulate offered was the ability to view courses offline. As it stands now, all of my 12,300 eLearning customers have the option of downloading their courses to their iPad or Android tablet device. This was a major selling feature for my courses and one of the main reasons I chose Articulate over other eLearning creation software. 

Given Adobe's elimination of Flash beginning next year, I understand that downloads will no longer be available via the Articulate Mobile Player (AMP). I find this troublesome since downloads are a necessary feature that is now disappearing with no HTML5 download replacement offered by your company. It seems to me that this is a great disservice to all those, like me, who purchased your product anticipating that this feature wouldn't disappear.

 Given Articulate's resources and its obligation to its customers, it seems reasonable that you'd create an HTML5 download replacement for the AMP. As far as I can tell from the Articulate forums, no such replacement will occur. Therefore, I'm asking that you reconsider this decision and consider offering an alternate means of downloading Storyline-created eLearning courses to a mobile device. 

 Please remember that I, and many others, purchased Storyline primarily because of its “downloading” feature. Now this feature is disappearing. While I don't want to tell you how to run your business, it seems to me that it would be relatively easy for your company to create an HTML5 replacement version of the AMP that allows downloads.

I sure do appreciate your consideration here. I look forward to hearing your response to my request.

Sincerely,

Rod Machado
www.rodmachado.com

Hi Rod and Ruth,

I totally agree that this is not a new feature request. I am also concerned that with just over 2 months to go, we are not getting a straight answer about whether there is going to be a solution to this. 

Hello Helena and Rod,

After a few vague responses from a Customer Support Engineer about whether or not the offline viewing feature would continue to be available, I sent this email:

All of our modules have been published using HTML5--that's not the issue. The issue is offline access to modules on tablets for children who go to school in rural areas without robust wi-fi infrastructure. The AMP app solved that problem for us which is why we chose Articulate in the first place. And we're not the only ones who are having concerns about this; there's a lot of "grumbling" about this very issue on your community site: https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/articulate-mobile-player-amp-end-support. Please escalate this case to your senior staff. We are looking for a replacement for your AMP app that is not Flash-based. This is not a new feature request.

As a result, I was contacted by a Senior Customer Support Engineer who is looking into the issue. I will be sure to let you know what the response is. Hopefully, we will finally get a straight answer so that we can plan accordingly.

In the meanwhile, as we have invested thousands of hours of production time into the development of our modules (you can have a look here: https://flora.nbed.nb.ca/ I am so very proud of my team!), I am still looking for other solutions. Have you considered this https://www.disciplemedia.com/features/ ?

Ruth