The app was created by Ankit Gupta and Akshay Kothari (two Stanford University graduate students) as part of a course at the Institute of Design.

[4][5] On 2 July 2010 a version of the app was released for iPhone and iPod Touch named Pulse News Mini.

Written in HTML5 the app works with all modern web browsers, however a special partnership formed between Alphonso Labs and Microsoft brings unique features such as gestures to users of Internet Explorer 10.

[13] On 11 April 2013 it was announced[14] as previously rumoured[15] that LinkedIn had purchased Pulse from Alphonso Labs for $90 million.

Along with the integration was a massive UI overhaul that was met largely by negative reviews by longtime users.

On 25 November 2015, LinkedIn announced that the original Pulse app was to be retired on 31 December 2015, after which user feeds ceased to update.