Pinterest starts rolling out emotional well-being exercises in the US for stressed users

The guided activities were created in collaboration with the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Pining away rather than pinning on Pinterest? The social media service is rolling out emotional well-being activities for users who use the app while sad or stressed.

These activities include breathing and self-compassion exercises like "recognising your strengths" and "practicing gratitude". Each activity only takes a few minutes to do.

Pinterest product manager Annie Ta says in a statement that users will be prompted to explore these resources if their searches contain terms that indicate they are feeling anxious or sad, like “stress quotes” or “work anxiety”.

However, Pinterest will continue to direct users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if they search for self-harm related topics.

Ta says users visit Pinterest to discover ideas and be inspired. "But we know that life isn’t always so inspiring, and things on the Internet aren’t either," she says.

The guided activities were created in collaboration with the Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, Vibrant Emotional Health and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 

However, Pinterest states that the resources are not meant to replace professional care.

Ta points out that the resources look different from the rest of Pinterest, as the experience is kept separate – it’s private and not connected to the user’s accounts.

The company assures users that it won’t show recommendations or ads based on how they use these resources and will not track who uses it, with all related activities stored anonymously on a third-party service.

This feature is being rolled out progressively to both iOS and Android users in the United States, with plans to introduce it to other countries as well.