Mozilla is Shutting Down Pocket—Here’s What You Can Use Instead.
Ever found an interesting article but had no time to read it? Pocket has been the go-to tool for saving content, but Mozilla is shutting it down. If you’re looking for distraction-free alternatives, here’s what you need to know.
What Is Pocket?
Mozilla describes its service Pocket, as:
a free service from Mozilla that makes it easy to discover great content that’s personalized to your interests, and save this content so you can return to it later – on any device, at any time.
Pocket made it easy to save articles and blog posts to be read later, but you could also save other types of content, such as videos. Pocket is easy to use, even more so if you install the browser extension. All you needed to do was log in to your Mozilla account and, once that was done, you could save things and access them from all your devices.
Mozilla even has a newsletter connected to Pocket, which, of course, has buttons to send articles to your Pocket if you don’t have the time to dig in properly to the content.
When saving things to Pocket, you could also add your tags. This makes it easier to group content and to find what you’ve saved later.
Mozilla acquired Pocket from Read It Later, Inc. in 2017. Back then, it was part of Mozilla’s strategy to provide:
”more powerful tools to discover and access high quality web content, on their terms, independent of platform or content silo”
Pocket, together with the Firefox web browser, was available on Android, Desktop, and iPhone. This made it very accessible to a great number of people.
Pocket has been a favorite of mine, and I’m not alone. It’s an app with over 10 million users who love to save things for later and get recommendations based on content you’re interested in. So why is Mozilla shutting it down?
Mozilla Is Discontinuing Pocket—Here’s Why
Mozilla recently posted an article stating that on July 8, 2025, Pocket will be shut down. You can continue to use the app and extensions for a while longer, but you won’t be able to download them after July 8th.
The key dates can be seen below
In a different blog post, Mozilla explains the reason why it decided to shut down Pocket. Pocket and the browser extension Fakespot are two products that will be phased out. The reason the two products are being cut is simple economics. This can be seen in the introduction of the post:
Firefox is the only major browser not backed by a billionaire and our independence shapes everything we build. This independence allows us to prioritize building products and tools, which shape the future of the internet for the better. And it means we have to be intentional about where we invest our time and resources so we can make the biggest impact.
Mozilla is focusing resources on Firefox, introducing new built-in reading tools like tab groups and improved bookmarks. While Pocket was a beloved tool, economic realities made it unsustainable. Some new features implemented in Firefox, like tab groups and better bookmarks, provide built-in ways to manage a reading list. You can get the short explanation here.
Fun fact, tab groups are making a comeback and used to be a part of Firefox in an earlier version. It first appeared as an experimental feature in Firefox Stable 133, but is now a part of Firefox from version 138.
How to Export Your Pocket Saves Before It’s Too Late
While you can’t download Pocket after July 8th, you still have until October 8th to export your saves. After October 8th, your data is permanently deleted. In order to export your Pocket data, Mozilla has a good support article covering this.
In short, the process is this:
- Ask for export
- Receive a confirmation email of the export
- Get an email with a link to your zip file
- Unzip your file and import or use as you see fit
The data is exported from Pocket as a CSV file. This file is then sent to your email. The process can take up to 24 hours, so be patient! The time it takes to generate the file can be connected to how much data you’ve saved over the years, but I haven’t found anything to support this.
Once you’ve received your link, this is active for 48 hours. The exported file will include links to your saved links, but not extract the text of the saved links. Tags or highlights will not be exported.
How to Export and Open Your Pocket Data
When I exported my data from Pocket, I first got a confirmation email that the data was being exported.
After this, the mail with the link to the zip file arrived. I’m not sure if the amount of data you have saved makes this process take longer.
Links appear in your csv-file and if you’ve made annotations, you get a subfolder in your zip file containing a .json file.
Tip: You can open JSON files using Notepad or view the content using your browser. There are some options to choose from:
- Choose “open with” and choose your browser
- Drag and drop the file to an empty browser tab.
- Use Ctrl + O to open the file.
If you use the option to drop the file into a browser, another tip is to check the box for pretty-print.
This makes the browser display the file using indentations and more of a coding mode – much easier to read!
The next image show a json file but with pretty-print activated.
The option to drag-and-drop into a browser worked fine using Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. When I tried this in Opera, nothing happened at all.
If you use Firefox, you don’t need to check any box to use pretty-print as you do in Chrome or Edge. A bonus is that Firefox presents the data in different colours, making it way easier to view and read.
Best Read-It-Later Apps to Replace Pocket
What alternatives can you use now that Pocket is no longer an option?
An article from 9to5mac gave some good options to choose from:
| App | Best For | Key Features | Platforms | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instapaper | Simple offline reading & highlighting | Supports text, images, videos, PDFs, and public pages | iOS, iPadOS, Android, web, Kindle | Free & Premium options |
| Raindrop.io | Advanced bookmarking & collaboration | Handles RSS, newsletters, PDFs, and YouTube transcripts | iOS, iPadOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, web | Free & Paid plans |
| Readwise Reader | Deep reading & note-taking | Handles RSS, newsletters, PDFs, Twitter threads, EPUB files, and YouTube transcripts | iOS, iPadOS, macOS (web app), Android, web | Subscription-based, free trial available |
| Matter | Mobile-first reading experience | Text-to-speech, highlighting, Notion integration | iOS, iPadOS, web | Free & Paid plans |
| GoodLinks | Privacy-focused, offline reading | Tags, offline mode, no third-party syncing | iOS, macOS | One-time purchase + tipping |
From these options, Instapaper’s page was the least informative in terms of explaining what it does or how it works. It seems very bare-boned but functional.
Matter even has a small “Welcome Pocket Readers” button at the start page, and a short welcome letter and FAQ if you use the link. The premium version of Matter includes text-to-speech, annotation tools, and more.
A blog post from Zapier dives more into the pros and cons of some Pocket alternatives. This post lists some note-taking apps with web clippers as options for storing things for later. The article also mentions some read-later options built into Safari and Chrome, as well as some extension alternatives you can add to your browser.
Which Read-It-Later App Is Best for You?
To find the best option to replace Pocket, you need to look at your reading habits. Some of the alternatives listed above have a free version, but these often come with limitations. Are the limitations something you can live with, or is the paid version including a feature you must have?
One example could be Raindrop.io. With the pro version, you get AI suggestions, which means Raindrop will suggest tags, collections, and also help you organize your bookmarks. In the pro version, the search includes full-text search and a permanent library, meaning Raindrop saves a copy of the pages you saved. Even if the original page disappears, you still have a copy. If these are options you must have, go for the pro version.
What Will You Use Instead of Pocket?
Pocket has been my go-to tool, and saying goodbye is tough. But with Mozilla shifting focus, it’s time to explore new alternatives. Replacing an app you’ve used for a long time can sometimes be challenging. Pocket is no exception.
I understand Mozilla’s willingness to focus its efforts on its browser as well as new projects, but it still stings a little, and I will miss my little Pocket icon next to my address bar.
As they say, all good things must come to an end. Thank you for all the information you’ve let me save over the years Pocket!
What will you use to replace Pocket? Share your thoughts in the comments!