In a bid to improve its user-experience for Windows users, Pinterest is now officially introducing a desktop app for Windows 10.
In a Medium post last week, Will Yau, Growth Engineer at Pinterest, announced that the company is finally bringing a desktop app for Windows users, in order to “create a more seamless experience” and allow users to access Pinterest without a browser and the numerous open tabs that can “make for a burdensome experience.” With the new app, Pinterest will now be readily accessible directly from the start menu and taskbar.
In addition to improving user experience, Pinterest leverages the Progressive Web App (PWA). As Yau explains, “since it’s a PWA, it’s reliable, fast and engaging, making efficient use of service workers, cache, notification and more. It also has a proper app manifest and leverage sharing and other features.”
Pinterest also sees this as an opportunity to reach users of the more than 800 million Windows 10 devices worldwide, who also have access to the Microsoft Store. The Store a great distribution channel, but is also “flexible and treats packaged PWA as a first class citizen with access to Windows 10 feature APIs,” explains Yau.
PWA apps offer small app sizes and can stay continuously updated and fresh. Furthermore, the availability of “service worker” allows Pinterest to offer a great offline experience like most native apps.
The app does have some challenges, though. One is that the app needs to be downloaded, and the other is that it can crash. Also, making the app available through the Microsoft Store increases friction and drop-offs will be inevitable within the specific acquisition funnel.
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