If you installed the Pinterest app recently, then surely you would have noticed a new feature at the top of your home screen
Well, yes that's correct, as of now, Pinterest now also boasts stories or a panel of 'story pins', more specifically.

Pinterest launched beta test of Story Pins with selected creators last September, which it is slowly expanding, and as part of this effort, the platform is now also displaying Stories from Pinners you follow at the top of each users' 'For You' feed.

Story Pins are not exactly the same as the ephemeral Stories on other apps, with the most notable difference being that Story Pins live within a Pin, and don’t disappear after 24 hours. But the format is pretty much what you’re used to, providing a vertically-aligned presentation option for Pin content, which can be used to add more context to your regular Pins.

But not everyone has the new panel. For some, the panel has been appearing since early January, and also since then, that's the format it is being rolled out.

For example, to make some groups of users notice something, the app had launched multi-participant Stories.
This week, however, users have been coming in and complaining about a different kind of format with the Stories panel, one that looks distinctively unique.
We asked Pinterest about its updated Story Pins approach, and it provided this statement:

“We’re continuously testing new ways for creators to reach communities of people looking for ideas to try and for Pinners to discover and follow other people who share their passions and interests.”

So it's a test at this point, meaning that not everyone will ever see it. But it appears to be an interesting, engaging way to make the most of the feature, and to create interest in Story Pins - while, as noted above, also aligning with broader shifts in social media usage.

Which is the real focus here. Various users on Twitter have lamented the addition of Stories within the app and questioned why Stories have to be 'everywhere'.

The logic is that Stories are immensely popular, with the format overtaking the more traditional news feed display in terms of engagement.
Stories has mushroomed quickly and remains the preferred medium for a rapidly increasing majority of users, especially younger audiences. And that was just slightly over two years ago-after that, Stories have only seen more engagement, and that is why all these platforms, from Facebook to LinkedIn, have added the format as another option to encourage more posting and to facilitate further interaction and activity within their apps.

That's why Twitter now has Fleets, why YouTube also has its own version. And why Pinterest is looking to tap into the same. Because such processes can become habitual - once creators become accustomed to being able to share more temporary, immediate, vertical format updates, and once users get used to being able to view the same from their favourite accounts, that becomes an expectation, or at the least, a welcome option for content consumption.
When your capacity to increase engagement is literally a Stories panel, why not include it? Sure, users might think you are weird at first. But Stories are everywhere, in every app. They will get used to it in yours too - and then they will probably like it as yet another discovery option.

Which is the function it plays on Pinterest. Why Stories? Because it works, because it's engaging.

And with this new test, it may soon become a much bigger part of your Pinterest strategy.