Gallery • 3 Photos

Farah Eljazzar

Screenshots of different Shuffles made by people.

Picture a dream vacation. A glistening, bright blue ocean, a cold drink in one hand and a good book in the other. Music blares through your earphones as you look up to a watercolor filled sunset. However, you aren’t on vacation at all. Instead, you have compiled a collage of pins and photos to create a perfect alternate reality.

Shuffles, a new app introduced by popular networking company Pinterest, has taken social media by storm. Users are able to link their Pinterest accounts to Shuffles, in which they use various “pins” and photos to cut out and collage them into moodboards and abstract collages.

The app first gained popularity after people started posting their own Shuffles on other social media platforms to encourage others to download the app.

“Many people made appealing collages and shared them on other platforms, such as TikTok,” senior Chuyang Zhang said, who is an avid user of the app. “These videos went viral and caught the attention of people who wanted to be able to make a collage that suited their own tastes.”

Additionally, the app has become popular due to its exclusivity and easy-to-use features. Shuffles is an invite only app in which users have to obtain codes to download the application or join a days long waitlist. Gaining popularity through other apps such as Twitter, Tiktok, and Reddit, those who want to download the app have to scavenge through long threads and comments to find a code.

“When [Shuffles] first came out, codes were extremely difficult to find due to the popularity of the app,” Zhang said. “However, the code wasn’t difficult to get for me personally since a friend was the one who shared it.”

Secondly, its accessibility and user-friendly features allow for endless creations. Unlike other photoshop and collaging apps, Shuffles practically does the work for its users. By simply selecting a photo from one’s camera roll or pins, the app will cut out the photo and recommend other icons or mixed media that would fit its style. Within a matter of minutes, users can create collages and digital art that would have otherwise taken hours.

“It’s well organized, which makes using its features easy,” Zhang said. “I also like that you can see shuffles from other people that you don’t necessarily interact with.”

The popularity of Shuffles points to a bigger shift in social media today. Platforms are now encouraging a more creative, interconnected environment than ever before, and Shuffles allows users to hone in on one interest or niche in an extremely accessible manner.

“There’s more creativity in the editing options that it offers,” Zhang said. “[The app] encourages different posts than other social media platforms.”