Google’s latest AI project challenges the territory of Pinterest. The company has announced the release of Mixboard, software that allows you to create mood boards with AI.
This service competes with Pinterest’s collage feature. This feature creates mood boards by users using their favorite pins and other images.
However, with Mixboard, you don’t need to establish an image collection to elicit ideas. Instead, users can start their own projects using a text prompt and have AI enter their ideas. (If you need a little help in the creativity department, you can also use pre-edited boards that you can edit.)
The service will initially be available in the US as a public beta via Google Labs.
After creating images using AI, you can also ask the AI to make edits and other small changes, or combine the images. It utilizes Google’s new image editing model, Nano Banana. This is received enthusiastically for its ability to handle more complex editing and create realistic images.
After its launch, Google’s Gemini AI app pushed ChatGpt from the top spot in the US app store.
Using Mixboard, Google is meeting the user needs of Nano Banana by incorporating it into its own products. This can be used to brainstorm ideas that include both images and text, such as home decoration and design, event themes, DIY projects, etc.
Young users have expressed interest in creating digital mood boards.
Pinterest has discovered the success of the virus with Shuffles, a standalone collage making app that Gen Z users used to create creative Tiktok videos. The app’s functionality was later integrated into Pinterest itself. Other startups have explored the space, including landings (now shutters), poems from AI-powered creative apps (which seem to have inspired the mixboard). Depop today launched a collage making tool to help users style and sell their fashion collections.
Mixboard’s mood boards can also be rethinked, Google could also rethink them, using the option that allows you to get more ideas to “play” the image, or ask the AI to generate “like this.” Additionally, AI can generate text based on images on the user’s board.
To try out the mixboard, US users can start by visiting labs.google/mixboard. Discord communities are also available.
