AppleInsider Staff
Apple and social network Pinterest on Thursday rolled out "app pins," a new type of enhanced pin that lets users of Pinterest's iOS app install pinned apps on their device without switching to the App Store.
App pins — Â denoted by a small "App Store" badge that also includes the Apple logo — Â function just like regular pins, but with some added versatility. Included next to the traditional "Pin it" button is a new "Install" button, with an additional "view this on the App Store" button below the pin's photo.
Tapping either button will bring up an App Store sheet with the pinned app's entry. The view is identical to a typical App Store page, and users can see screenshots, read reviews, and browse related apps from within the sheet.
Tapping the "Get" or "Buy" button within the sheet will ask the user to authenticate with their Apple ID password or via Touch ID, then install the app as usual. Users can then close the sheet and return to the Pinterest app, or tap a "Store" button to open the App Store app.
Alongside the app pins functionality, Apple has launched a new App Store profile on Pinterest. It remains to be seen whether Apple will expand the App Store sheet functionality to other partners in the future.
For its part, Pinterest believes it can help alleviate the App Store's much-maligned discoverability problems.
"We can be a really powerful service for app discovery, which is a problem that still really hasn't been solved," Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharp told the New York Times. "Our specialty is really connecting people to the things they want to do."
Pinterest version 4.3 is available now as a free, 40.8-megabyte download from the App Store.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Stephen Silver
Charles Martin
Amber Neely
24 Comments
What could go wrong?
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/184767/ios-users-can-now-install-apps-directly-from-pinterest-with-new-app-pins#post_2674898"] For its part, Pinterest believes it can help alleviate the App Store's much-maligned discoverability problems. [/quote] [COLOR=blue]...and what might this "much-maligned discoverability problems" that I've not heard of be," said one who has never heard of such a thing? [/COLOR]
Me too, I've seen no problems discovering the Apps I want and need. First I've heard of pinterest. It's certainly a large App.
Could it be this social site benefits from the Apps installed via them ???
Oh, come on. There are millions of apps and well, just a few list to see them. For a devellopper, this is a major issue. I'm a big Apple fan, and yes there is a problems in discovering decent apps.
Me too, I've seen no problems discovering the Apps I want and need. First I've heard of pinterest. It's certainly a large App.
Could it be this social site benefits from the Apps installed via them ???
With each iTunes version Apple removed more and more advance search functionality until there are none now.
There are some tricks like looking for "Free" gives moreover free apps but that is probably all.
You can not search for language specific apps, search in category, by popularity or rating or by minimum iOS version and so on.
And in smaller countries apps do not have much ratings because we do not see those from US app store so one have to do research outside app store to get some reasonable info.