Pocket, I'm going to miss you

👖How do you organize content you find and want to watch, listen or read later?

I walked to the library on my lunch hour on Thursday. It was there that I first saw the email in my inbox:

The news was devastating. Pocket has been an integral part of my digital life for years. Whenever I come across an article I want to read (but don’t have time to read) — on my phone or on the web — I add it to my Pocket. I do this daily, often several times a day. Then whenever I have a little downtime — traveling, on a flight, over lunch at the office, in the evening — I grab my Kobo and read from my queue.

What’s Pocket?

Pocket is the best place to save and view content. It’s the solution to if you’re the type of person who’s always emailing themselves links or keeping a billion tabs open in a browser, Pocket allows you to save all that content to one place that you can view no matter when and where you are.
- founder Nate Weiner in a 2014 interview

If you have never used Pocket, here is a video (from 13 years ago) that demonstrates the use case and its value:

The core use case is still true today. Its integration with Kobo is what makes it magical:

Screenshot of Kobo blog post, December 19, 2013.

Being able to read online content with the ads stripped out and nicely reformatted on an eReader you can take anywhere is such a more enjoyable lean-back experience.

Here is a video showing Pocket’s integration with Kobo (from 11 years ago):

Alas, this is all coming to an end — and soon: July 8, 2025.

Here is the official Mozilla blog post announcing the news and the related support article:

• Investing in what moves the internet forward (Mozilla Blog)

• Pocket is saying goodbye - What you need to know (Mozilla Support)

If you’re one of Pocket’s 50+ million users world wide, you may know how I’m feeling right now: abandoned, but not alone.

Media coverage

Here is a sampling of news coverage over the last few days:

• Pocket, One of the Only Apps I Ever Liked, Is Shutting Down (404 Media)

• Mozilla is killing everyone's favorite read-it-later app starting today (Android Police)

• Mozilla is killing its Pocket and Fakespot services to focus on Firefox (Ars Technica)

• Mozilla is shutting down Pocket (BetaNews)

• Mozilla is shutting down its read-it-later app Pocket (Engadget)

• Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, its read-it-later app (Nieman Lab)

• Read-It-Later Pocket App Will Shut Down on July 8 (PC Magazine)

• Mozilla is shutting down read-it-later app Pocket (TechCrunch)

• Mozilla is shutting down Pocket (The Verge)

How to export Pocket saved articles

According to Mozilla:

You will be able to export your saved articles, including items in your list, archive, favorites, notes, and highlights, until October 8, 2025. After this date, all user accounts and data will be permanently deleted.

• How to Export Your Saved Articles Before Pocket Shuts Down for Good (Lifehacker)

• How to export your Pocket saves (Mozilla Support)

Finding a replacement

With just 45 days until Pocket shuts down, the search for a replacement has already begun. If you have a recommendation, please share below or send me an email.

Here is what my initial Google search suggested:

I looked at Raindrop.io, and Wallabag briefly. Raindrop looks intriguing but different. Wallabag may be a good option but with more complexity (need to self-host). I had looked at Instapaper many years ago and preferred Read It Later/Pocket at the time. I will take another look. I plan to test as many services as I can to find the most suitable replacement for Pocket. If you’re interested, I’m happy to share what I learn with you in a future issue.

Saving Pocket

Of course, the best case would be if someone could simply save Pocket.

Kevin Rose suggested he’d be interested in taking it over:

Screenshot of tweet by @kevinrose on X.

• Digg founder Kevin Rose offers to buy Pocket from Mozilla (TechCrunch)

My immediate thought was Kobo. Afterall, its native integration is one of its primary points of differentiation compared to Kindle (and the reason I’ve recommended Kobos to multiple people over the years). It might have a strategic interest in preserving this functionality.

Kobo’s CEO Michael Tamblyn is active on Threads. I thought about messaging him yesterday. I waited to see if there might be an announcement. This morning he posted this:

Screenshot of thread by @mtamblyn.

I’m encouraged by his comment that, “We’re taking a look at other web clipping options too, so as far as Kobo goes, one way or another we'll get this figured out.” I sure hope so. What’s unclear is the timing.

A look back

Nate Weiner started this nifty tool as Read It Later in 2007. As it continued to scale, Read It Later rebranded as Pocket in 2012. In 2017, Mozilla acquired it and Nate stayed on until 2020.

Pocket founder Nate Weiner in an undated photo. Image source: https://review.firstround.com/the-story-behind-how-pocket-hit-20m-users-with-20-people/.

I’ve never met Nate in person but I’ve long been impressed by his story and the thoughtfulness imbued within Read It Later / Pocket. Here are two articles you might enjoy:

• How a Two-Day Side Project Turned Into a Productivity App with 11 Million Users (Zapier)

• The Story Behind How Pocket Hit 20M Users with 20 People (FirstRound)

And here is a video from November 2013 where Nate shared what the Pocket team had been working on:

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🎵Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield

This week’s musical embed continues in the theme of pockets.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine
I got a love and I know that it's all mine, oh, oh-oh
Do what you want, but you're never gonna break me

-Lyrics to Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield

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I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Be well,

-Bryce