How to Create a Secret Board on Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the few social platforms that genuinely rewards private browsing. Whether you're planning a surprise party, curating a mood board for personal use, or saving ideas you're not ready to share, secret boards give you a private space within your public profile. Here's exactly how they work — and what you need to know before deciding how to use them.
What Is a Secret Board on Pinterest?
A secret board is a Pinterest board that only you can see — unless you explicitly invite a collaborator. It won't appear on your public profile, it won't show up in Pinterest search results, and followers won't be notified when you pin to it.
Secret boards behave like any other board in terms of functionality: you can save pins, organize them into sections, add notes, and even collaborate with specific people. The only difference is visibility. From the outside, the board simply doesn't exist.
How to Create a Secret Board on Pinterest 🔒
The process is slightly different depending on whether you're on desktop or mobile, but both paths are straightforward.
On Desktop (Browser)
- Log into your Pinterest account
- Click your profile icon in the top-right corner
- Select "Boards" from your profile page
- Click the "+" or "Create board" button
- Enter a name for your board
- Toggle the "Keep this board secret" switch to on
- Click "Create"
The board will now appear in your boards list with a lock icon next to the name, but only when you're logged into your own account.
On the Pinterest Mobile App (iOS and Android)
- Open the Pinterest app and tap your profile icon at the bottom right
- Tap the "+" button to create a new board
- Enter a board name
- Toggle "Keep this board secret" to on
- Tap "Create"
The steps are nearly identical across iOS and Android. The toggle is in the same place on both platforms, though the visual design may vary slightly depending on your app version.
Making an Existing Board Secret
You can also convert a public board into a secret board after the fact:
- Go to the board you want to make private
- Tap or click the pencil/edit icon
- Find the "Secret" toggle and switch it on
- Save your changes
Keep in mind: once a board is made secret, any followers who were previously following it will no longer be able to see it. Pins from that board will also disappear from others' feeds immediately.
Collaborating on a Secret Board
Secret boards aren't strictly solo tools. You can invite specific Pinterest users to view and contribute to a secret board. This is useful for co-planning events, shared wishlists, or collaborative projects you don't want made public.
To add a collaborator:
- Open the secret board
- Click or tap the "Invite" button (often represented by a person icon with a "+")
- Search for the Pinterest user by name or email
- Send the invite
Invited collaborators will receive a notification and can pin to the board, but the board remains invisible to everyone else.
Key Variables That Affect How You Use Secret Boards
Not everyone uses secret boards the same way, and the right setup depends on a few factors worth thinking through.
| Variable | What It Affects |
|---|---|
| Account type | Personal accounts and business accounts both support secret boards, but business accounts may have analytics differences |
| Number of secret boards | Pinterest currently allows up to 500 boards total (public and secret combined) |
| Collaboration needs | Solo use vs. shared planning changes how you set permissions |
| Mobile vs. desktop | Both support the same features, but navigation differs slightly |
| App version | Older app versions may show a different UI — keeping the app updated ensures consistent access to current features |
What Secret Boards Don't Do
It's worth being clear about the limitations of Pinterest's secret boards:
- They are not encrypted — Pinterest can still see your content
- Pins saved from public sources can still be traced back to the original source
- If you invite a collaborator, they can see everything on that board
- Deleting a secret board permanently removes all the pins saved exclusively to it
- Secret boards cannot be converted into group boards visible to all followers — they remain either secret or fully public
🗂️ Different Users, Different Approaches
How useful a secret board is depends heavily on what you're trying to do with Pinterest:
A casual user saving gift ideas or planning a home renovation privately will likely find one or two secret boards more than sufficient. A business user managing content planning or internal mood boards alongside a public profile might create several secret boards organized by project. Someone co-planning an event with a partner benefits most from the collaborator invite feature, since it keeps communication in one organized place without going public.
The experience of using secret boards shifts quite a bit depending on how heavily you use Pinterest overall, whether you're managing a personal or professional presence, and how much you rely on collaboration versus solo curation. What works cleanly for one setup can feel overly complicated — or not structured enough — for another.