Introducing the Today tab for daily inspiration

There’s no question life feels different these days. The spread of COVID-19 is disrupting lives around the world, but it’s been heartening to see people willing and eager to do their part to fight this virus by staying home.

As people adjust to a new normal, they’re coming to Pinterest to stay inspired. In fact, over the last weekend, we saw an all-time high around the world with more saves and searches on the platform than any other weekend in our history. There has also been significant growth in use cases like planning what to cook, finding lesson plans and craft projects for kids, and tips for growing vegetables. And in the U.S., more people than ever were sending Pins to one another and idea sharing, with messages sent through our Send a Pin feature up 34%.

People need ideas today. So we’re moving up our launch of the Today tab, a source of daily inspiration with curated topics and trending Pins that makes it easy to explore popular and timely ideas. Over the coming weeks we’ll be featuring expert information here from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control on topics like hand washing during the coronavirus epidemic. In addition, we’re also showing inspiration in categories that are particularly popular right now like kid-friendly baking ideas, self-care tips, family-favorite movies and comfort food recipes.

Just click “Today” at the top of your home feed from your iOS or Android app for new ideas each day. Recommendations will include a handful of topics. We’ll start with ideas curated by the Pinterest team and in the future will also feature guest editors.

While the home feed continues to show personalized recommendations, the Today tab will show popular ideas based on what's going on in the world and trending searches.

Making emotional well-being activities more available

In the past few weeks, searches for “calming quotes” doubled and “stress relief” and "stress quotes" have tripled, and so we’re also starting to roll out compassionate search on web, to make the mental wellness feature available on all platforms. That means when you search for terms like “stress relief” from your desktop computer or phone, you’ll see the options to check out a collection of emotional wellbeing activities to help relax and feel better with content from emotional health experts. Or, you can head directly to https://wellbeing.pinterest.com/.These are just some of our efforts to make reliable and expert information easily accessible on Pinterest, in addition to:

A custom search experience featuring results from experts (image here)
Prohibiting ads that claim to offer cures or treatments or that are looking to exploit the crisis
A banner across the site that directs to WHO facts
An easy way to report health misinformation through the "health misinformation" option on Pins. We're removing any misinformation we find about COVID-19 because it violates our health misinformation policy (which has been in place since 2017)

Stay safe, stay inspired

As people around the world come to Pinterest looking for inspiration, we’ll surface ideas in the Today tab in the U.S. and the U.K., with more countries to come, and in places like home feed and search in additional places. For example, last weekend, we saw the highest rates of user engagement in the history of the platform in countries like Italy, France, Spain and Germany. In France for instance, saves are up almost 30% vs. last month.

In the U.S., searches for “freezer meals” are up 155% in the past two weeks (compared to previous two), “working from home” up 170% and “indoor activities with kids” up 1,300%.

The Today tab on mobile apps is now available in the U.S. and the U.K. and is expanding to 13 new countries: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico and Switzerland.

Compassionate search is available in the U.S. and U.K., with more countries to come.

Check out our Stay safe, stay inspired board for even more ideas. Find high resolution images here.