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If you’ve been on Pinterest lately you might have noticed a big difference in your Home Feed page. Instead of seeing the lastest pins of people you follow, you now see the best pins that Pinterest thinks you’ll be interested in. This new way of showing you pins is called Smart Feed and is similar to how you see posts on your Facebook News Feed and Twitter’s While You Were Away.
You can also now use Pinterest to discover new apps and install them directly onto your mobile device right from the Pinterest app.
Smart Feed – Curated Content for You
Pinterest has been getting to know you, your interests, what you like to pin, what you search for and which pins you click on. Instead of filling your Home Feed with the most recent pins of people you follow, Pinterest now uses Smart Feed to show you the pins it thinks will interest you most. Pinterest figures out which pins will be most appealing to you, whether or not they’re pinned by people you follow.
To determine which pins will interest you most, Pinterest takes into account:
- Your interests
- People you follow
- Popularity and quality of related pins
Pinterest processes this information in a Smart Feed Worker to determine which pins will be most relevant to you. You’ll see these pins in your Home Feed even though they may not be either the most recent pins or pins from people you follow.
Your Home Feed should be much more engaging now. If someone you follow just pinned 15 pins of Ideas for Cat Beds in a DIY board you’re following, you may not see any of these pins if you’re not interested in cat beds. Previously, those 15 pins might have filled your Home Feed, making it irrelevant to you.
Instead, your Home Feed should be populated with pins in a variety of your interests. For example, if you’ve been using Pinterest as a search engine, your feed might have pins that match a recent search results. Let’s say you search Pinterest for “waffle iron recipes” to get ideas for an upcoming brunch. You might see pins with waffle iron recipes in your feed such as this waffle iron recipe the next time you go to Pinterest, even if these pins are from people you don’t follow.
You can discover new pins this way as well as new pinners that you might not have previously discovered. Your Home Feed should be much more interesting and a better source of relevant information and pinspiration for you.
You can find out more about the science behind Pinterest Smart Feed at the Pinterest Engineering Blog.
App Pins
Pinterest can be a very handy source for finding fun and useful apps for your mobile devices. Last week Pinterest introduced App Pins so developers can pin their apps with a link directly to the iTunes App Store.
Now when you use the Pinterest app on your iDevice, you can see App Pins with an Install button in the upper right corner of the pin.
Tap the Install button and you’ll be taken directly to the listing in the App Store without leaving the Pinterest app.
The listing is identical to the App Store listing so you can read more about the app, see reviews, view images and check out related apps.
You can sign into the App Store, download the app to your iDevice and continue to peruse Pinterest while your app is downloading.
If you want to open the App Store app, just tap the Store button and you’ll leave the Pinterest app and go to the App Store app.
App Developers can find out more, including how to create your own App Pins from the Pinterest Blog.
(Sorry, no word yet on when and whether Pinterest will be bringing this App Pin feature to Android.)
Boards to Discover Apps
You can use both the Pinterest website and app to discover new and useful apps.
⇒ Check out the iTunes App Store profile to discover boards such as:
⇒ Pinterest Staffers have pinned their favorite apps to the Staff Picks board.
⇒ Follow my Apps I Love board to discover my favorite apps.
⇒ Use Guided Search to help you find great apps. Search “apps” and see sub-categories of topics such as:
- iPhone
- Android
- Best
- Must Have
- Design
- Fitness
and more.
For example, let’s say you’re about to leave on a trip and you want to find some fun apps to play while you’re on the go. Use Pinterest Guided Search to help you find some new fun game apps. Search for Apps. Then click on for iPad, Games to find pins of the best game apps for iPad.
☞ See, Pinterest Guided Search – A New Path to Pinspiration! for more information on how to use Guided Search for Pinterest.
Your Thoughts
Have you noticed a difference in your Pinterest Home Feed? Do you prefer Smart Feed to the previous way pins appeared on your Home Feed? Have you discovered apps using Pinterest? Are you excited about App Pins? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
That was news indeed 🙂
Yes, I did notice the change and Smart Feed is indeed turning up to be more like our Facebook newsfeed, though of course they are both different.
I liked how it’s become so much easier for us to find interesting pins and how we can get apps within the Pinterest app as well, though you know I am not much of a mobile user myself, but I know those who are – would surely love this bit of information.
Heading right over to share it all over! Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a new week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Great point. Although Facebook tries to show us posts it think will interest us most, those posts are from our Facebook friends, while with Smart Feed Pinterest shows us pins from people we don’t follow. Smart Feed increases our chance of discovering new pinners and boards to follow, increasing the relevance of the pins we’re seeing in our Home Feed.
Yes, App Pins are very exciting for those who use iDevices. We save quite a few steps between discovering new apps and downloading them to our devices. Saved steps, always a bonus.
Thanks so much for sharing this article widely and for your lovely comment, Harleena!
Great tips.
going to implement this tips.
Hope this new feature may help me to bring me more social traffic.
Thanks for this post.
Hi Hamim, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, this Smart Feed change really makes us re-think how to get our pins repinned. Having a lot of followers won’t necessarily help you get your pins seen. Group Pinterest boards may become even more important in sharing our pins with others.
Thanks for your visit and your comment, Hamim!
This is an amazing article as you have really taken time in explaining clearly about the pinterest recent updates. Even I am impressed with the home page feeds. App pins is really a nice concept though. Thanks for sharing this great info
Hi Vino, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you enjoyed this article about the new ways Pinterest can help you find the best pins for you. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to join in the conversation!
This is good to know. I’ve only recently started using Pinterest but am beginning to understand what the appeal is. Trying to make the most of it so some useful info here, especially the smart feed stuff. Thanks!