Pinterest launches a feature to let users remix collages created by others | TechCrunch

Pinterest created an engaging format with collages last year, which allows users to combine images and cutouts to create new content. The company is now banking on people creating more of them by introducing a Remix feature.

Just like the Remix feature on short video apps, such as Instagram and Snap, the idea behind Pinterest’s feature is that users can borrow an existing collage and put their own spin on it. Users who don’t want to be remixed can turn off remixing for collages from the settings.

You can create a new Remix by navigating to the “Remix a collage card” option in the collage tool or tapping the Remix button on a collage you come across while browsing Pinterest. Once you publish your edits, the final collage will have the names of both the user and the original collage creator.

Apart from the Remix feature, the social platform is also making it easier for users to download and share collages in video format with different styles, such as regular video, timelapse, unscramble, ink, and analog. This means that creators could potentially use Pinterest as a new short video creation tool.

You can also download a collage as an image. Pinterest said it will create integrations to share collages directly to other social platforms later this year.

“We’ve seen great adoption as well. Collages are saved at significantly higher rates than other Pin types, and we’re seeing that users, particularly Gen Z, love creating collages as a way to express themselves,” David Temple, Head of Two Twenty, Pinterest’s in-house incubator that built collages, said in a statement.

The company said that since the start of the year, it has seen a 418% increase in the number of collages, ranging across use cases such as planning outfits, building beauty routines, and dreaming up dorm rooms. Collages are a hit with Gen Z as 72% of daily collage users are Gen Z. The company concentrates on making collages feature rich given that they are now a more engaging format than traditional Pins.

Collages were born out of Pinterest’s iOS app called Shuffles, which launched in 2022. The company eventually integrated the format into the main app last year.

The company is already trying to make some money out of collages. In the last few months, Pinterest has invited advertisers to create collages using cutouts of product pins from their catalog and promote them as ads. During its Q2 2024 earnings, the social platform said that brands like Nike, John Lewis, and Bumble were using collages to promote their products.

The company has more than 522 million global monthly active users, with Gen Z being the primary engagement driver.