Pinterest Pincode

Overview

Pinterest Pincode (styled Pincode™) is a proprietary, circular scannable code from Pinterest that, when scanned with the Pinterest app's camera (Pinterest Lens), opens a specific Pinterest profile or board [2]. It launched in 2017 as part of the late-2010s wave of branded, app-locked social-media codes [1]. The feature is now effectively discontinued in practice: it is no longer promoted, it depends on the in-app Lens scanner rather than a native camera, and it is a relic of the pre-native-QR era — though Pinterest's help centre still documents how to create one and the company has not published a formal shutdown date [2].

History

Pinterest introduced Pincodes on November 14, 2017, giving every user a unique personal Pincode (accessible from their profile) and letting users and brands link a code to a profile or to any board [1]. Pincodes were a Pinterest-specific, app-only code in the same family as Snapchat's Snapcodes, Facebook's Messenger Codes and Instagram's Nametags — branded scannable codes that bridged the physical world into a single app [1].

At launch Pinterest leaned heavily on retail and print partners to place Pincodes in the real world: Nordstrom featured them on curated gift boards in select stores, Kraft Heinz linked them to recipes on products, select Home Depot locations carried them, Kia used one at its LA Auto Show exhibit, and the December issue of REAL SIMPLE magazine printed one [1]. As native phone-camera QR scanning became universal over 2019-2022, app-only codes like Pincode lost their rationale; Pincode is no longer a promoted Pinterest feature, even though the help documentation persists [2].

Technical specification

Pinterest never published an open encoding specification for Pincodes. What is documented is the visual form and the scanning model: a Pincode has a circular scannable element (Pinterest's help guidance specifies that "the circular part should be a minimum of 1.5 inches in diameter to be scannable" when printed) [2]. Scanning is performed inside the Pinterest app — the user opens the app, taps the camera icon next to the search bar, and points the phone at the Pincode; Pinterest Lens reads it with no need to take a picture, instantly opening the linked Pins, board or profile [1, 2]. The bit-level encoding behind the circular pattern was not made public [1, 2].

Use cases

Pincodes were used to share a Pinterest profile or board from a physical or printed surface [2]. A user could share their personal Pincode so others could quickly find and follow them, and brands could attach a Pincode to in-store displays, products and magazine pages to send shoppers to a curated board — for example Nordstrom gift boards, Kraft Heinz recipe boards, and Home Depot and Kia activations [1]. The core action was always the same: scan with the Pinterest app to open the linked profile or board [2].

Implementations

There are no public, open-source implementations of Pincode generation or scanning. The format is proprietary to Pinterest; codes are generated in the Pinterest product and scanned only with the Pinterest app's Lens camera, with no published spec or third-party SDK [1, 2].

Comparison

Versus a standard QR Code, a Pincode is app-locked: it must be scanned with the Pinterest app, whereas QR codes are read by any phone's native camera [1, 2]. Its circular form distinguishes it visually from a square QR module grid, much like Snapchat Snapcodes and Facebook Messenger Codes [2]. Pincode is part of the broader 2017-2018 wave of proprietary social codes (Snapcode, Messenger Code, Instagram Nametag, Amazon SmileCode) — most of which were retired or abandoned during the 2019-2022 industry retreat back to standard QR codes, once native camera QR scanning made app-only codes unnecessary [1, 2].

Status

Effectively discontinued / abandoned in practice. Pincode launched in November 2017 as an in-app circular code; it is no longer a promoted feature and belongs to the pre-native-QR era of app-only social codes [1, 2]. Note the caveat: Pinterest's help centre still documents how to create Pincodes and the company has not published an explicit shutdown date, so no formal discontinuation date is sourceable [2].

Sources

1 Pinterest rolls out new Pincodes feature for easily accessing curated boards — 9to5Mac, 2017 2 Create Pincodes™ — Pinterest Help

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• Universal