Pocket
ScreenshotPocket web reader example.png
AuthorRead it Later, Inc.
OwnerMozilla Corporation
FoundedAugust 6, 2007 (age 19)
DissolvedJuly 8, 2025 (age 1)
RegistrationRequired; Disabled 2025-05-22
Native clientsAndroid, BlackBerry, iOS, Kindle Fire, Kobo, macOS and Windows[1]
IndustrySocial bookmarking
LicenseFreemium

Pocket, formerly known as Read It Later, was a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks, first released in 2007.[2] Mozilla, the developer of Pocket, announced in May 2025 that it was discontinuing the service and would shut it down in July of that year.[3]

History

Pocket was introduced in August 2007 as a Mozilla Firefox browser extension named Read It Later by Nathan (Nate) Weiner.[4] Once his product was used by millions of people, he moved his office to Silicon Valley and four other people joined the Read It Later team. Weiner's intention was for the application to be like a TiVo directory for web content and to give users access to that content on any device.[5]

Read It Later obtained venture capital investments of US$2.5 million in 2011[5] and $5.0 million in 2012. The 2011 funding came from Foundation Capital, Baseline Ventures, Google Ventures, Founder Collective and unnamed angel investors.[5] The company rejected an acquisition offer by Evernote after showing concerns that Evernote intended to shut down the Read It Later service and amalgamate its functionality into Evernote's main service.[6]

Initially, the Read It Later app was available in a free version and a paid version that included additional features. After the rebranding to Pocket, all paid features were made available in a free and advertisement-free app. In May 2014, a paid subscription service called Pocket Premium was introduced, adding server-side storage of articles and more powerful search tools.[7]

In June 2015, Pocket was included in Firefox, via a toolbar button and link to a user's Pocket list in the bookmark's menu. The integration was controversial, as users displayed concerns for the direct integration of a proprietary service into an open source application, and that it could not be completely disabled without editing advanced settings, unlike other third-party extensions.[8] A Mozilla spokesperson stated that the feature was meant to leverage the service's popularity among Firefox users and clarified that all code related to the integration was open source.[9][10] The spokesperson added that "[Mozilla had] gotten lots of positive feedback about the integration from users".[9]

On February 27, 2017, Pocket announced that it had been acquired by Mozilla Corporation, the commercial arm of Firefox's non-profit development group. Mozilla staff stated that Pocket would continue to operate as an independent subsidiary but that it would be leveraged as part of an ongoing "Context Graph" project.[6] There were plans to open-source the server-side code of Pocket,[11][12][13] though only parts of the project[14] had been open-sourced as of 2024.[15][16]

On May 22, 2025, Mozilla announced that it would shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. Exports of user data would be available until October 8, 2025, when accounts would be deleted.[3] The email newsletter Pocket Hits was rebranded as Ten Tabs on June 12 as part of the closure, with it being changed to release only on weekdays.[17][18][19]

Functions

The application allows the user to save an article or web page to remote servers for later reading. The article is sent to the user's Pocket list (synced to all of their devices) for offline reading. Pocket makes the article more readable by removing clutter and enabling the user to add tags and adjust text settings.

User base

The application had 17 million users[20] and 1 billion saves, as of September 2015.[21] Pocket was listed among Time magazine's 50 Best Android Applications for 2013.[22]

Reception

Kent German of CNET said that "Read It Later is oh so incredibly useful for saving all the articles and news stories I find while commuting or waiting in line."[23] Erez Zukerman of PC World said that supporting the developer is enough reason to buy what he deemed a "handy app".[24] Bill Barol of Forbes said that although Read It Later works less well than Instapaper, "it makes my beloved Instapaper look and feel a little stodgy."[25]

In 2015, Pocket was awarded a Material Design Award for Adaptive Layout by Google for their Android application.[26][27]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pocket Applications". getpocket.com. Archived 6 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  2. ^ Nagappan, Ramu (June 11, 2010). "Read It Later app now available for iPad". Macworld. Archived March 6, 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  3. ^ Roth, Emma (May 22, 2025). "Mozilla is shutting down Pocket". The Verge. Archived May 28, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 9, 2025.
  4. ^ Weiner, Nate, "Read it Later—Firefox Extension", archived 2012-02-16 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2015-07-17
  5. ^ Kincaid, Jason (July 26, 2011). "Read It Later Raises $2.5 Million, Wants To Become The Dropbox Of Content". Techcrunch. Archived November 26, 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  6. ^ Newton, Casey (27 February 2017). "Mozilla acquires Pocket to gain a foothold on mobile devices". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived 12 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  7. ^ "Introducing Pocket Premium", Read It Later Inc., May 28, 2014, archived February 14, 2015 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved January 19, 2015
  8. ^ "Hacker News". ycombinator.com. Archived August 6, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  9. ^ Protalinski, Emil (June 9, 2015). "Mozilla responds to Firefox user backlash over Pocket integration". venturebeat. Archived November 17, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  10. ^ "Mozilla has 'no plans' to offer Firefox without Pocket". VentureBeat. 13 November 2015. Archived 17 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  11. ^ "Mozilla acquires read-it-later app Pocket, will open-source the code". VentureBeat. 2017-02-27. Archived 2018-09-23 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  12. ^ Downer, Tyler (2017-10-21). "Mozilla, Pocket and open-source". Reddit. Archived 2017-12-26 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-09-23. we have plans to make it entirely open source
  13. ^ "Mozilla Acquires Pocket – The Mozilla Blog". The Mozilla Blog. Archived 2018-09-23 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  14. ^ "open-pocket/open-pocket: Building a 'clean room' open-source implementation of Pocket". GitHub. 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  15. ^ "Pocket Source Code". Mozilla Discourse. 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  16. ^ "Pocket". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  17. ^ "Pocket". Pocket. Archived 2025-06-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-06-18.
  18. ^ "Pocket is saying goodbye - What you need to know". support.mozilla.org. Archived 2025-06-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-06-18.
  19. ^ "👋 Say hello to Ten Tabs. New name, same great reads". Pocket. June 12, 2025.
  20. ^ "Pocket built a save button for the internet — what's next?". The Verge. September 8, 2015. Archived September 8, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  21. ^ "1 Billion Saves to Pocket!". Read It Later Inc. May 15, 2014. Archived February 25, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  22. ^ Newman, Jared (July 1, 2013). "50 Best Android Apps for 2013". TIME. Archived July 4, 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  23. ^ German, Kent (July 11, 2011). "Kent's 10 favorite Android apps (CNET 100)". CNET. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved June 30, 2013.
  24. ^ Zukerman, Erez. "Read It Later Pro". PC World. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  25. ^ Barol, Bill (December 16, 2010). "Instapaper vs. Read It Later: The power of pretty". Forbes. Archived December 14, 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  26. ^ Fulcher, Rich (2015). "Material Design Awards". Google Design. Archived September 11, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  27. ^ Raphael, J. R. (May 29, 2015). "Material Design, 1 year later: How Pocket and Pocket Casts conquered Google's vision". Computerworld. Archived October 7, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 6, 2015.