Pinterest announced Thursday that it’s developed a new feature that lets users pin and install apps from Apple’s App Store within Pinterest.
App pins are a new kind of unit of content within Pinterest, where users arrange items of interests on boards. While Pinterest was best known initially for users’ collections of visuals, it introduced “rich pins” in 2013 in a variety of categories. For instance, product pins include information about pricing and availability of the item in question.
If you see an app pin while on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll be able to download it immediately without leaving Pinterest. The motivation for the app pin integration is to make downloads on an iOS device more seamless.
“With more than 75 percent of usage to Pinterest coming from mobile devices, we want to make it easier to discover apps for all types of interests,” said Malorie Lucich, a Pinterest spokesperson in an email interview.
While Pinterest announced a partnership with Apple today, the company would not share information about whether a similar pin structure was coming to Android or other non-iOS devices.
“This week’s announcement is all about Apple,” Lucich said. “We don’t have additional plans to share at this time, but we hope to bring more types of Pins to people across locations and devices in the future.”
Pinterest has previously collaborated with Google on an app for Android Wear smartwatches.
Facebook and Twitter have built substantial businesses selling app-download ads to mobile-app developers. The app pin format, while not explicitly commercial today, could fit into Pinterest’s efforts to make money by charging advertisers to promote pins so they’re visible to more users.
A Recode report cites anonymous sources who say Pinterest has plans to implement a “buy” button sometime in 2015. Between getting a cut from app developers and money from online retailers pushing their wares, Pinterest is teeing itself up as serious marketing platform alongside larger social networks.
