【The Playbirds】

Pocket will soon be The Playbirdsno more.

Mozilla, the creators of the web browser Firefox, announced last week that it would be shutting downPocket, the read-later platform it acquiredback in 2017.

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Pocket was the most popular read-later service with more than 30 million users, according to Mozilla. The platform was originally founded in 2007 as Read It Later, just as social news and social bookmarking began to take off.

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Read-later services enable users to save web pages, articles, and videos for easy access. These services enabled users to remember long articles they came across for a later time, archived web pages for offline viewing, and more.

Pocket provided a free service as well as a paid premium subscription for less than $50 per year.

However, regardless of Pocket's utility and user base, Mozilla has decided to shut the platform down. According to Mozilla, "the way people use the web has evolved," so the company has decided to shut down Pocket in order to put more resources into Firefox.

Pocket will shut down on July 8, 2025. Users will be able to export their data until October 8, 2025. After that, user data will be permanently deleted.

Pocket alternatives

Pocket may be saying goodbye, but plenty of bookmarking and read-later platforms are still alive and kicking.

If you're looking for a read-later service like Pocket, Instapaperand Readwiseare two popular options. 

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Instapaperlaunched shortly after Pocket in 2008, so it's been around for awhile. The service offers a free plan as well as a paid premium subscription option. Instapaper has a much more minimalist design than Pocket, so it might take some getting used to, but it definitely looks sleek. Plus, Instapaper is offering three free months of its $5.99 per month Premium subscription plan to anyone who imports their Pocket data over to its platform. Readwisehas a bit more of a Pocket-esque UI but it does not offer a free plan beyond a 30-day trial. After that, a paid subscription to their $9.99 per month plan or their $5.59 per month "Lite" plan is required.

Read-later apps

However, my personal pick for a read-later service replacement for Pocket is an app called GoodLinks.

GoodLinks app for Mac. Credit: GoodLinks

GoodLinksis not a service like Pocket, and the previously mentioned alternatives, where user data is stored on a server. GoodLinks is a downloadable app for Mac and iOS devices. GoodLinks costs just a one-time purchase of $9.99 to get the app for life and new features for a year. Once the year is up, users can continue to use the app as is, with quality of life updates, without any additional costs. Any new features after that initial year will become completely optional one-time, in-app purchases.

GoodLinks provides all the same features those subscription services provide, such as offline reading, downloadable archives, highlights, notes, and more. Plus your data is stored locally and syncs via iCloud.

Like Pocket, all of these services allow users to save more than just articles. If you're a Pocket user looking for a more video-oriented option, Playjust might be for you.

Play isn't a read-later app, it's a watch laterone. Play keeps track of YouTube videos, channels, and playlists so users can keep tabs on what they want to watch when they have time to watch it. Play also fetches all of the metadata, such as timecodes, descriptions, and more. That means users don't even need to leave the app while catching up on videos they saved.

Play: Watch Later app for Mac Credit: Play

Like GoodLinks, Playisn't a service, but an app that stores data locally and syncs via iCloud. Play is available on Mac, iOS devices, and even has an Apple TV app. You can unlock Play across all apps with a one-time purchase of $2.99. Premium features, like channel tracking, requires a $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year subscription, or can be unlocked forever with a one-time purchase of $99.99.

Bookmarking alternatives

By default, a read-later platform is basically a bookmarking platform as well. For Pocket users who used the soon-to-be-defunct platform to bookmark their favorite websites, the above alternatives work…but they are really made more for articles.

If you need a bookmarking alternative to keep your favorite websites easily accessible wherever you are and regardless of which web browser you're using, I recommend Anyboxor Raindrop.io.

Anybox app for Mac Credit: Anybox

Anyboxis a free downloadable app that can be used to save, search, and organize your bookmarks across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. All data is stored locally and shared via iCloud sync. All features are available at no cost, but there is a bookmark limit for the free plan. To bookmark unlimited links, there's a subscription of $1.99 per month or $14.99 per year, with a one-time payment option of $39.99 to unlock the Pro plan forever.

Raindrop.ioon the other hand is an online bookmarking service. The free plan provides users to access all basic bookmarking features without any limits. The $28 per year Pro plan provides the most robust premium features of any of the service, with AI suggested tags, collections, and more. It also gives users the ability to annotate pages, add reminders to bookmarks, and save a permanent archived copy of every webpage that's saved. 

So, there you have it: A Pocket alternative for every possible use case. And, if none of those hit the spot, you can always hold out hope that Pocket will somehow live on. Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, said he offered to buyPocket from Mozilla shortly after the sunsetting announcement. However, Mozilla has reportedly not yet responded.

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Rose is still tryingthough.

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Topics Apps & Software Social Media