Pinterest sought to beef up its service by launching three visual discovery tools which “reinvent how people find ideas”.

The first – Shop the Look – is part of a feature launched in 2015 enabling users to zoom into a pin with several items and discover details including its name and  where it can be found. Now users can also track down and buy the products within pins related to fashion and home decor, either from the retailer or from within the app itself.

Next is Lens, a service still in beta which lets users point their cameras at something in the real world which strikes their fancy, such as a friend’s shoes or a dining table, and see related styles. Pinterest explained in a statement the Lens function is designed for times when users know what an item they want looks like, “but they can’t translate that visual into the words they need to find it.”

For now, Lens works best for finding home decor ideas, clothing and food. As more people use it, results will improve and the range of objects Lens recognises will get increasingly wider, the company said.

The third tool is named Instant Ideas, which enables users to discover ideas inspired by the pins they see in their home feeds.

In October Pinterest said it had more than 150 million monthly active users, up from 100 million a year ago, with more than half outside the US.

Evan Sharp, co-founder and head of product at Pinterest, explained in a blog post the three new services are currently available only in the US, but said the company is gearing up to expand availability globally.