Pinterest may be best known for its shopping inspirations and design ideas, but the company’s latest product wants to inspire users to tap into their own creativity. The company has quietly launched a new iOS app called Random play to make collages using photos, crop pictures and other animation effects. The app is now in invite-only state with the ability to join the waitlist from the home screen.
As described by Shuffles on the App Store, users can create their own collage using Pinterest’s photo library or take pictures of the objects they want to include with the camera. They can also crop individual objects from within an image using a single tap – a feature reminiscent of iOS 16’s smart cropping capabilities. The images in Shuffles can then be rotated, layered, and resized onscreen to create a collage, and optionally add animations and effects. The final project can be shared with friends for collaboration, or posted to public groups where others can “remix” the original work in their own way.
The description of Suggestions App Can be used to visualize room makeup, fashion ideas, mood boards, etc.
While the company hasn’t officially announced its plans around Shuffles, a Pinterest spokesperson has confirmed the app is rolling out from its new in-house incubator, TwoTwenty.
“Shuffles is a standalone app created by TwoTwenty, Pinterest’s creative incubator. A spokesperson said: “Shuffles is an engaging way to create, publish and share visual content. “With more people coming to our platform for creative inspiration, we are constantly testing new ways to help Pinners and Creators bring their ideas to life.”
“As the app is in early beta, we don’t have any additional details to share on file at this time,” they added, declining to share more about the plans. its future or earning potential.
Image credits: Pinterest
Debut last November and named after Pinterest’s first office, TwoTwenty’s The goal is to drive more internal testing on social and speed up social innovation. Other tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft and Google, have similar efforts with their own incubators – NPE, Microsoft Garageand Area 120, corresponding.
In the case of Pinterest, the company has been working to make the transition from the past as an image bookmarking and bookmarking site that helps drive e-commerce transactions to adapt to the times of Today’s creator-driven, where consumers are prompted to make a purchase through video content. To address consumer demand for video, Pinterest released TikTok like Pin ideas and a live shopping feature, Pinterest TV. In fact, the second one was also launched by TwoTwenty’s team.
But TwoTwenty isn’t just for experimenting with video. The organization consists of engineers, designers, and other product professionals that aim to research, prototype, and test a variety of new ideas to see if they gain traction. Those who do will be assigned to other teams in the company to scale up.
The early-stage project Shuffles is just one of those ideas.
The funny thing is that Pinterest’s new app is similar to a mobile collage maker Meta that ran a few years ago through its own internal incubator, NPE Team. Called E.gg, Magazine maker has grown a small number of people who enjoy creating multimedia collages that combine images, text and GIFs. But like nearly all of Meta’s NPE projects, E.gg has stopped working. Pinterest’s Shuffles may be looking to tap into a similar consumer need for visual-led creativity and inspiration, which Meta has abandoned.
The app also comes at a time of growing resistance to the idea that video should be the only form of social expression and creativity on social media, for all the giants technology is trying to turn itself into TikTok. Last month, user backlash over Instagram depriving friends of content and photos reached a peak. The Kardashians have begged for the app stop trying to be TikTok. As a result, Instagram has rolled back some recent changes but it’s still set on a video-first future.
Pinterest is, to some extent, conceivable that its pivot to its own videos may not be able to hold users’ attention indefinitely in the face of the TikTok threat. Finding another area of development through an experiment can give it new avenues to explore.
Financially, the company most recent quarter’s earnings proved solid from a numbers standpoint, but it missed out on user growth. Monthly active users fell 9% year over year to 433 million.
The company is due to report second-quarter earnings after the market closes today. Note, this will be the first earnings since new CEO Bill Ready takes over from co-founder Ben Silbermann, who has since moved on to serve as Executive Chairman. on June 29, 2022.
