Pinterest now displays a story line at the top of the home screen when you open the app. It’s an interface that should look familiar to anyone who’s used a social media app in the past few years: it’s the same approach taken by Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Messenger and more. The change will begin to appear today on iOS and Android.
“Story Pins” were introduced to Pinterest in September. They worked just like any other story format, with short videos posted consecutively that you could tap to switch. Where they differed most was how you found them: Story Pins appeared just like any other post on Pinterest, just like another box in several grids of pins.
Now, these Story Pins will be easier to stand out. They’ll appear at the top of the home screen and the app will even suggest stories from creators you’re not following. The move is expected to increase engagement in the stories and is likely to encourage creators to start posting even more stories to the app. Pinterest stories are not ephemeral like most other apps, so once the creators create them, the videos will stop there and build a library for the service to continue promoting.
Pinterest still has a big limitation around Story Pins: not everyone can create them. They remain limited to approved companies and breeders for now.