The Pinterest Like button is no more

We may have grown used to expressing your appreciation through the ‘Like’ button on social media platforms, but Pinterest has decided to do away with the ‘Like’ button.

Citing the existence of Pinterest Save and Pinterest Like on Pinterest as confusing, which itself could be termed confusing, considering the two have different functions altogether.

Pinterest Content Strategist Kim Rourke justified the decision to eliminate the Pinterest Like button saying, “...we have both a Save button and a Like button, it hasn’t always been clear how they’re different. After doing a bunch of research with Pinners, we found Pinterest is easier to understand when we remove the Like button altogether.”

So if you see a post on Pinterest that is not completely relevant to you, yet you’d ‘Like’ to show appreciation by liking it, well that’s not going to happen now. You can Save posts for future reference as you always have, and that’s about it.

Don’t panic though.

All the posts that Pinterest users have liked before the demise of the Pinterest Like button will be siphoned off to a new personal ‘for your eyes only’ board termed ‘Your Pinterest Likes.’ You can move these Liked Pins from that Board to any other Boards that you have created.

“We know it’s hard to say goodbye to something that’s been a part of Pinterest for so long, and we appreciate you sticking with us as we keep making improvements,” Kim Rourke signs off on the blog post.

This move could be termed as puzzling since almost every social media platform depends upon ‘Like’ buttons to let users express themselves. Facebook has even expanded with Reactions, offering users a wider range of expression on posts. Pinterest is going the other way round. It’s odd, but the jury is still out on how this decision might turn out to be for Pinterest.

Interestingly, Pinterest’s newfound competitor Instagram too offers a similar ‘Posts You've Liked’ section where users can revisit images or videos that they have Liked. Instagram and Pinterest have been drawing ‘inspiration from each other for some time now. Instagram introduced a Bookmark button that was similar to Pinterest, and Pinterest took a lead out of Instagram to introduce ‘Explore’ to discover personalized curated posts.