Pin on the go: Pinterest finally lands on Android & iPad

Popular social network Pinterest has finally brought its addictive photo-driven service to Android devices and the iPad, a sign it wants to seriously step up its game in mobile.

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Pinterest launched in 2010, but it didn’t start gaining traction until late last year. It eventually became the third-most popular social network after Facebook and Twitter in April. Last week, the company ditched invitations and opened registration for anyone who wants to sign up on the spot.

First up, let’s talk Android. Pinterest users have been requesting an Android app for a long while and there were even rumors that Pinterest would launch the app at Google’s big I/O conference in July. But now it’s here and it looks great. The app maintains Pinterest-on-the-desktop’s feel, but shrinks the experience into two columns. When you tap a photo of something you want to see bigger, it fills the screen and gives you the option to repin, like, or comment on the pic. (You can see more photos of the Android app in the gallery below.)

“Android owners have been very vocal with their requests for an app — every product announcement we’ve recently made has resulted in the question ‘What about an Android app?’, the company wrote in a blog post. “We were listening, and our custom-designed Android app makes it simple and fast to pin, so that the time you spend on Pinterest is as productive as possible.”

Now let’s look at the iPad app. As you can see in the photo above, the iPad application also sticks to the Pinterest style its users have come to enjoy. It emulates the browser experience with a four-column layout. In the top right-hand corner, you can tap the menu button to access people you follow, search, and categories like animals, art, and design.

“iPad owners may have the best Pinterest experience yet,” the company wrote. “The app offers users new ways to engage with pins, whether swiping the screen to resume browsing after viewing a board, or using the embedded browser to see what others are pinning from their favorite sites.”

While the mobile releases today mostly focus on Android and iPad, Pinterest also updated its popular iPhone app. The company claims it has made “improvements to stability and performance.”

San Francisco-based Pinterest has raised $138 million to date, including a $100 million mega-round led by Japanese web retailer Rakuten. Other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital.

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