Read-it-later app Pocket to shut down its Mac app on August 15th

Mozilla’s Pocket, a popular read-it-later app that lets you save online articles to read when you have more time, announced today it’s retiring its Mac app, Pocket for Mac. The app will be replaced with the Pocket iOS app for Apple Silicon Macs instead — meaning those models introduced in late 2020 and later. The changes will go into effect on Tuesday, August 15th.

After that date, the Mac app will no longer work.

Unfortunately for users with older Mac models, that means they’ll no longer have a dedicated native desktop app for Pocket after the current Mac app shuts down. However, they’ll still be able to use Pocket via the website and on their iPhones and iPads, Mozilla notes.

The company says this move will allow users to have a more consistent experience across platforms, whether they’re consuming articles on their laptop computers or mobile devices.

Existing users who aren’t sure what model Mac they have can refer to this help article from Apple to see if they’re eligible to install Pocket’s iOS app on their Mac.

The changes follow a revamp to Pocket at the beginning of the year which saw the app updating key features, like its Home tab and “My List” tab, which was rebranded as “Saves.” At the time, the company said the idea was to make Pocket not just a place to catch up on your reading, but also an app you could use to discover new things to read through high-quality recommendations.

Today’s news of the Mac app shutdown comes at a time when Pocket is facing new competition, not only from other read-it-later apps like Instapaper and Matter, but also from more modern news reading apps like Artifact, from Instagram’s founders, that uses AI to make personalized recommendations of what to read next.

This past week, Artifact also added new AI text-to-speech voices in partnership with Speechify to allow users to hear articles read aloud in natural-sounding voices or even those of celebs, like Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow. By comparison, Pocket’s AI voices sound more robotic.

In addition to the shutdown of the Mac app, Pocket also reminded users it’s transitioning users to Firefox accounts — a process that started on July 11, 2023, and will be required as of August 15. This transition is another factor in the decision to shut down the Pocket Mac app, it appears, as the company aims to simplify its development efforts by focusing on its mobile app.