I have learned that a Pinterest widget will roll out wide on iOS 14 today, and reader, I am elated.
I’ve been an enthusiastic Pinner for years, typically for design ideas that I then attempt to replicate on a budget, being that I, myself, do not have unlimited money for things like home improvement. But I do get a lot of ideas there that I’m able to hack on the cheap, and in my excitement about this newly announced widget, I shared the news with my colleagues only to learn that I may be the one person who actually gives a shit about Pinterest — at least among the Gizmodo staff, whose opinions on this app are wrong and bad.
Now, I get that Pinterest often litters Google images search, a thing many of my esteemed colleagues find rage-inducing — which, sure. Another complaint was that while Pinterest is great for, say, surfacing makeup styles, it’s useless when it comes to helping you actually execute the look. That is not what Pinterest is for! If I am looking for a specific kind of furniture design, I troll Pinterest for ideas before heading to a site like YouTube to show me how to build it. Pinterest is merely a digital mood board — a means to an end, as it were. It is an imperfect service, sure, but it’s an incredibly useful ideas tool.
This is all a long-winded way of saying that I, for one, will absolutely be adding the Pinterest widget to my home screen like the deranged crafter I’ve become in recent months — more so now that there is not a whole lot else to do and we’re all trapped inside for the next few months as winter rolls in.
Pinterest says the widget is rolling out to everyone today, with both large and small options available. To update the widget to your preferred board, long-press the Pinterest widget, and select the Edit Widget option. From there, you’ll also be able to set the frequency for its tile updates (daily or hourly). Pinterest told Gizmodo that you can only choose a single board per widgets, “but if there are sections within a board, all content will appear.” You can, additionally, add multiple Pinterest widgets to your home page, and if we’re big honest, I’ve already devoted a full screen to my various DIY boards.
Additionally, while you can only select one of your boards or those of someone you follow to be featured in your widget, Pinterest said that it’s “exploring more functionalities for the future.”
Happy crafting to everyone except my co-workers, apparently.