The Death of Pinterest

Written by Carson Jones

Like many other industries in this day and age, a longtime favorite app of creatives has been overrun by AI and ads. If you were to open Pinterest right now, about a third—sometimes even more—of the homepage would be covered in advertisements for various coffee creamers or random Amazon products. While you can type in a specific search query, there is no guarantee that the picture you settle on pinning was drawn or taken by a real person.

This poses a pretty significant problem for users of the app because there’s nothing quite like Pinterest. It’s technically a social media app, but it’s far less social-oriented, and much harder to scroll endlessly on. It’s also more difficult to encounter misinformation and harmful content due to the creative nature of the app; it’s meant to be a source of inspiration rather than a source of conversation.

Additionally, AI’s growing presence on Pinterest is especially worrying for artists. Pinterest is home to both artists who post their work and artists looking for artistic references—it would be unfair to force both of these groups to meticulously sort through the content just to find real art by real people.

Another issue that has emerged with Pinterest is its content-checking algorithm. Users frequently get Pins flagged for “inappropriate content,” but cannot view the Pin the flag has been placed on. Pinterest also blames the saver of the Pin rather than the creator, despite the fact that all the saver was doing was adding it to a Board.

What’s often marked as inappropriate content isn’t even inappropriate, either. One Reddit user complained about this, saying “My other major issue with Pinterest [is] their system that detects what's inappropriate on the platform. It somehow perfectly manages to detect non-inappropriate things…it somehow bypasses or doesn't even get noticed at all when it'd be straight up inappropriate content that has no value other than to be lewd.”

But these problems with Pinterest don’t just pose threats to ordinary users. Many small business owners and blog creators use Pinterest to supplement their income—or receive all of their income from Pinterest—and their work is being threatened by the growing number of AI content and bots. “This sucks. I literally have no platform to go on as a business owner who does home organizing,” says another Reddit user.

According to an article by Yahoo Finance, Pinterest. INC’s stock had gone down by 28.7% in September of 2024. The article cites that the decline in the app’s profitability is due to the “soaring operating expenses” of the interface.

A few alternatives for Pinterest have hit the market, though, allowing frustrated users to switch to a platform with fewer ads and less AI content. Cosmos, an up-and-coming search engine, markets itself as “the new Pinterest for creatives.”

Launched in 2023, it allows users to make Clusters (the equivalent of Boards) and Connect (Pin) elements to Clusters. It also allows users to search by color palette, a feature extremely useful for artists that Pinterest did not offer. The app appeals strongly to creatives and designers because of its attention to graphic design and clean interfacing, as well as its unique and otherworldly-inspired marketing: the tagline is “ideas are sacred, exploration is infinite, and connection is cosmic.”

However, at its core, the app’s search engine is powered by AI. It uses AI technology to identify relevant keywords and “tag” content into collections.  So, while the images Cosmos provides aren’t AI, some users may be wary using a platform powered by AI.

Even if a user themselves does not tag an image, Cosmos does it for them, with AI picking up elements of the image and developing tags based on them. This could take away slightly from the creative aspect of Pinterest, where sifting through content to find the perfect match is part of the fun. One benefit it has that Pinterest does not, however, is the ability to upload your own image and have the app show you similar content.

More geared towards graphic designers and digital creators, Are.na is another platform similar to Pinterest that allows users to explore content and build their own moodboards. You can create Channels, which are similar to Pinterest Boards, and join groups, so it has a bit more of a collaborative element than Pinterest.

Images are known as Blocks, and the interface has a bit of a code-like feel—so some users switching over from Pinterest, which is very visually-focused, may be intimidated at first. Similar to Cosmos’ Clusters, Channels are grouped together by tags, so users can find various Channels through a single keyword.

Whether you choose to make the jump from Pinterest to an alternative, or stick around despite its flaws, these platforms are great sources of inspiration and creativity—you could be the ultimate mood board powerhouse with all three. Overall, though, it seems like Pinterest is best for the average creative, Cosmos is best for a more dedicated artist who likes a clean interface, and Are.na may be better for someone who still wants inspiration, but appreciates keyword-based search engines and a forum-like structure.