Why Pinterest’s new messaging feature will make the platform better than ever

Pinterest lovers will be delighted to hear that today the addictive bookmarking platform is introducing a bunch of new ways to send messages to friends and fellow pinners.

The official Pinterest blog (aptly called Oh How Pinteresting!) published details of the new messaging feature today and I think even those who aren’t obsessively pinning every night (I absolutely love Pinterest and have no shame in admitting it) will agree they could make a huge difference to the way we all use the platform and here’s why…

As you can see from the image above, the new messaging features will be private and bring up an instant messaging interface that looks a lot like the Whatsapp experience. Users can kick off these conversations easily by just sending a message to a fellow pinner or sharing a pin and then letting the conversation flow afterwards.

Now the obvious advantage of this kind of communication feature is collaboration. Up until now, Pinterest has felt like a fairly solo expedition into the world of dream holidays and crafting projects. Even though you’re pinning things others have published (and maybe you’ve even been collaborating on boards together), there’s definitely been a weird disconnect with the fact you’re interacting with someone else’s content but not actually interacting with them. Obviously the new messaging features will turn this on its head. You’ll be able to send messages to multiple people, which is going to be huge for planning things amongst friends, work colleagues and other groups and you’ll be able to send things to people you know as a way of striking up conversation, joining together on creative projects or just swooning over something or other that you both want/want to visit/want to make.

In this way, Pinterest will bring us closer to the contacts we already have and probably lead to us interacting with our pins more than ever before.

But I think there’s also another great advantage to Pinterest messaging and that’s connecting with brand new people. I don’t know about anyone else, but Pinterest is one of the few social platforms I use nowadays where I ‘follow’ tonnes of people I don’t know. This doesn’t mean I haven’t carefully selected them based on my key interests (which on Pinterest tend to be design & meditation), but does mean they’re people I haven’t connected with before. So not only is the new messaging feature going to lead to great new ways to collaborate, I think it’ll be key to making community ties that dedicated pinners have spent so long ‘curating’ so to speak, even stronger.

Up until now, people made connections through comments. In fact I’ve watched some amazing conversations take place within the comments sections of pins, from people arranging meet ups, to some beautiful declarations of admiration. But in such a public domain and all typed out under one image, it just looks messy and this method isn’t conducive to making meaningful connections. Fast-forward to this week and the new messaging feature could really spell great things for the pinning community, especially within niches, like fashion, pattern, design & baking (just to name a few).

And while I’m declaring my love for Pinterest, just take a look at this demo video on Pinterest’s blog. Not only does the messaging feature look seamless and in keeping with the rest of the app experience, but the whole service just looks great, doesn’t it? I genuinely can’t get enough of the way you hold down on a pin and then swipe to interact with it. Just marry me already, Pinterest!

What do you think of Pinterest’s new messaging features? Let us know in the comments below!