Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:29AMHow To Pin Images To Pinterest From The iPhone
Welcome to Simply The Nest! I'm an English girl blogging about a 130 year old Victorian house DIY renovation. You can read more about me here, check out our house tour here, and view our main before and after gallery here.
Want to get straight to the good stuff? Get started with these iPhone Pinterest instructions, and then try pinning the image below :-)
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Update April 2013: You may want to check Pinterest's copyright policy here.
So the other day I figured out how to pin images to Pinterest while browsing on an iPhone. I know, right? You're welcome!
In case you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, it's freaking awesome. It's basically the answer to my what-on-earth-do-I-do-with-all-these-cool-online-pics-that-I-wanna-keep-for-inspiration problem.
Previously, whenever I came across a cool image online, I would save into onto my C Drive as a jpeg, but I quickly realised that not only would this end up taking up LOTS of storage (and we are already into terabytes territory chez nous), but I just couldn't figure out a way to easily record the link where I'd found the image, in order to give appropriate credit if I later used it on my blog. So I started saving links as bookmarks instead - which meant I ended up with links on my iPhone, Andre's iPhone, my work laptop, our PC upstairs, our PC downstairs... yep, that wasn't working out so well either.
Enter Pinterest. See a picture you like? Pin it, catalogue it, describe it, tag it, and save it onto your own nicely presented online notice board.
The only problem? According to the nice people at Pinterest (and also to Google in general), you can't pin images from an iPhone. It works from an iPad - and an iPhone app is in the works - but for now, if you're an iPhone user (and because in recent months I have become one-handed due to the requirement to carry a cute chubby baby girl around with me everywhere I go, browsing on an iPhone is the only option for me), then Pinterest is basically useless.
Unless, of course, you accidentally due to a stroke of sheer genius figure out how to pin images to Pinterest from an iPhone :-)
Oh all right then, enough of the talking, and on with the instructions...
First of all, you need to modify an existing bookmark on your iPhone. Select any old bookmark, and click Edit. Change the name of the bookmark to Pinterest (or Da Bomb, it's entirely up to you), and copy/paste the following into the URL window:
javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement('script'); e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript'); e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8'); e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());
It looks like a chunk of random characters, but it comes out in a nice long line in the URL window. Then click Done, and Done.
This code is taken from Pinterest's blog, and is part of their instructions for using Pinterest on the iPad. I figured what the heck, I'd try it on the iPhone - and lo and behold, while it doesn't work the way they describe (it's supposed to add the Pinterest bookmarklet to the toolbar), it works just fine in a completely different way.
So here's what you do next. When you come across an image that you'd like to pin (in this example, I'm going to pin an image from my blog), click Bookmarks at the bottom of the window. Note that you shouldn't open a new window - stay on the webpage with your chosen image, and just hit the Bookmarks icon.
Locate your Pinterest bookmark, and click it. This runs some nifty kind of magic on the webpage with your chosen image, and pulls out all the images into a grid. Select the image you want to pin, and click Pin This.
You will then be taken to your Pinterest account, where you can add a category, description, and tags.
Freaking awesome, or what? Now, it's not a perfect solution. If you want to pin more than one image from the same page, you have to run the Pinterest bookmark every time. And sometimes you need to get the image onto its own page and then run Pinterest. And it doesn't work on Flickr. But I'm delighted to have figured out how to use Pinterest to pin images from the iPhone - Happy Christmas to me! Roll on the official app...
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Happy pinning, peeps :-)
Reader Comments (168)
Thanks for sharing this - it looks great and I can't wait to try it out - one teensy problem.....when trying to creat an account I was told that Pinterest is in "Private Beta" and I am being placed on a waiting list.... So, I am not great at delayed gratification - how long does this take?
Hola! I think I waited about ten days for my invite to come through. My theory is they are trying (successfully, I might add) to generate a buzz about the service, therefore making it a 'waiting list' rather than a simple registration.
I just tried this! So rad! You made my day and now i dont have to stop pinning. EVER!
Besos darling,
Rebekah
Ps- im totally blogging about this newest development! You deserve something amazing for your efforts
Rebekah - NEVER STOP PINNING!! Lol. Glad you liked :-)
I'm (sort of....) following what you're saying here and it DOES sound great. But, have you ever heard of Evernote? Fabulous, fabulous. Google it and take a look. works from computer and iPhone. You can share files with colleagues! You can capture any image at all and file it and mark the URL. Hmmm. maybe I'll do a post on it! But do take a look and let me know what you think, ok?
Happy New Year to all of you Alice,
Libby
Happy New Year, Libby! I do have the EverNote app on my iPhone but I've never actually used it - just googled it and it does look great... what I wasn't sure of is whether you can access other people's 'notes'? What's great about Pinterest is that you can view all 'pins' (images) that have been pinned by the people you follow - and also by all Pinterest users (by category - I'm only interested in the Home and Furniture category) and browse for images you like, which you can then 're-pin' onto your own pinboards. So in addition to saving your own images, Pinterest gives you access to a huge library of inspiring images which can be easily tailored so you only see images pinned by people whose taste is similar to yours. Love it! I also have a feeling that Pinterest is going to be a major-league application alongside the likes of Facebook and Twitter - currently it's in beta version so I'm excited to see what's next...
Evernote is a different shoe. Both Evernote and Pinterest got other applications/service that battle with them for the thrown. Actually Zootool has spread itself more geek in the geek area, has a great support (even Reeder supports it), in contrast Pinterest is there for everybody - I <3 it..
Hey Pattulus - Happy New Year! Evernote and Zootool seem pretty similar. What I like about Pinterest is that it fulfills a specific purpose for me - I'm browsing the design blogs I read every day, I see an image I like (a room, an item of furniture, a colour combination) and I pin it to one of my pinboards on Pinterest. Right now I'm collecting pics of fireplaces, distressed French-style furniture, and brightly coloured rooms for children, among others.
What I think makes Pinterest unique is the social/community aspect - I love seeing images I've added to Pinterest being re-pinned by other people - it's pleasing to think that something I've pinned has helped to inspire someone on the other side of the world to switch up the decor in her living room, for example :-)
And of course I benefit in the same way - I don't have time to scour the archives of sites like Skona Hem, Marie Claire Maison and LivingEtc for cool pics, but there are plenty of people who do, and they're putting them on Pinterest. Yes, I could read the blogs of these people instead as they may post them on their blogs as well - but although there are lots of blogs that I read due to the quality of the writing, there are many more that I quickly skim every few days to cull the images that catch my eye. And with Pinterest I get instant access to hundreds of interior design-related pics that match my taste - the equivalent of reading dozens of 'pictorial' style design blogs in a matter of seconds.
You could say I'm a fan :-)
OMG! U are soooo smart! I've been trying tofigure this out forever! Bless u child! You are giving us all a wonderful start to 2011!
Ha ha, glad I could help, and Happy New Year!
Thanks for the great tip! I actually found you when you pinned me on pinterest and I love the site - it is sooo helpful for organizing my blog. Looking forward to reading more in 2011!
Hi Steph - oh yes, the orange giraffe! I thought that would make a cool baby height chart (I'm really into painting murals at the moment). Congratulations on the new blog :-)
At the risk of repeating the sentiments of all the previous comments - THANK YOU! As an artist, web addict, and most importantly new mommy I am deeply indebted. I have shared your blog and its instructions here: http://munecasmusings.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/pin-to-pinterest-on-the-iphone/
You rock! Oh duty calls baby is waking up...
Thank you!
Muneca
www.LushCluster.com
p.s. please add the Pinterest button to your site so we can check out your Pins. I bet they are great!
http://pinterest.com/about/pinitforward/
You are AWESOME! Thank you for sharing this!
Ha ha you're very welcome :-)
Thank you! I am going on a long train journey tomorrow and not taking my laptop and I was wondering if I would be able to pin things on the iphone! x
You are my hero!!! So addicted to pinterest and needed a fix on my iPad ! Thank you!
Worked great. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I'm a new pinterest addict and this is exactly what I was looking for! I have the iPhone app but it doesn't let me pin things while browsing. Brilliant!! Also your blog is lovely, yay Squarespace!
Another new pinterest fan here and I found you from googling how to add pins from my ipad. Works great! Thanks so much!