I am a longtime Pinterest user and can easily spend an entire afternoon browsing, pinning and pinning some more, so you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon We Heart It by chance in the New & Noteworthy section of the App Store.
We Heart It was founded in 2008 and is slowly catching up with Pinterest in terms of monthly users and the amount of content available. But, the question is, do you and I really need another photo-sharing service, let alone one that is hailed to be as addictive as Pinterest? Click “more” to find out.
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First Impression
I am a sucker for anything cute, and We Heart It is no exception. Sporting pastel pink splashes of color and a minimalist interface, We Heart It is functional yet attractive to boot, and the design alone encouraged me to dive right in to discover exactly what else the app has to offer.
Creating a We Heart It account is the first item on the agenda.
Creating a We Heart It account is the first item on the agenda, a process made even easier by the ability to connect via Facebook or Twitter. Alternatively, an e-mail address and password will suffice, with the option of integrating social media at a later date.
Browse and Bookmark
Once an account has been created, you are greeted with an endless stream of images, ready to Heart and add to your collection. If you are looking for something in particular, use the search bar prominently displayed at the top of each page to draw up a selection of related images, which can be sorted by popularity, date added and best matched.
To Heart an image, tap the heart icon located on the navigation bar running along the bottom of the screen.
To Heart an image, tap the heart icon located on the navigation bar running along the bottom of the screen. From here, that image may be tagged, placed in a set, shared or downloaded to your iPhone and used however you please, although I do wonder the legalities of this due to copyright law.
Every image that you Heart is added to My Hearts, and then placed in the set specified, which function in a similar way as Pinterest boards.
Upload Your Own
If you prefer to upload your own photograph, illustration or graphic to We Heart It, simply access the Menu and tap Browse Camera Roll. This will enable you to upload the image in question, add a description and tag it so that other users can Heart it, too.
Upload an image of your own by tapping Browse Camera Roll.
Share and Share Alike
Connecting We Heart It to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr will allow you to share your favorite images with friends and family. Alternatively, if social networking is not your thing, each image can also be shared via e-mail.
Linking your account to the above will also enable you to follow your buddies on We Heart It, again, functioning in a similar fashion to its rival. You can also follow other We Heart It users too, by tapping the Follow button found in the top right-hand corner of their profile. Doing this will generate a personalized stream of content containing all the images that the people that you follow Heart or upload, and is a great way of discovering new material and other likeminded We Heart It users.
Pretty in Pink
As I mentioned above, We Heart It is attractively designed — if you are a fan of the color pink, that is! While the app color scheme may not be suited to all tastes, you will be glad to hear that We Heart It is exceptionally easy to navigate, possibly even more so than Pinterest, and you are therefore able to steer away from the worst offending areas pretty quickly.
We Heart It vs. Pinterest
When comparing We Heart It with Pinterest content-wise, Pinterest is the clear winner. Personally, I found We Heart It somewhat limited, with the majority of images lacking in quality and identical entries appearing a number of times per search. However, the We Heart It community is growing rapidly, and I am sure that the content will improve as more and more people sign up and add their own material.
We Heart It vs. Pinterest, which do you prefer?
Design-wise, Pinterest is significantly more gender neutral than We Heart It, and the heavy use of the color pink may discourage a large percentage of the male population, or indeed those who despise pastel pink, from joining the community.
The Verdict
Like Pinterest, We Heart It is dangerously addictive and should probably come with some kind of health warning. I am a big fan of the overall design of the app but realize that not everybody will feel the same way, and I also like the way each set is presented, and how intuitive We Heart It is to navigate.
Although We Heart It is very similar in style to Pinterest, I believe that there is enough space for both photo-sharing services to coexist peacefully side-by-side, and that it is simply a matter of taste which one you decide to choose. Me? I prefer Pinterest, but that is mainly because I have amassed a large amount of content which would presumably take an age to transfer to We Heart It, and the fact that Pinterest has a wider selection of images to pin.
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