Pocket is gone. Where does the read-later pile go?

What happened to Pocket?

Mozilla announced on 22 May 2025 that it was shutting down Pocket, the read-it-later app it acquired in 2017. The app and browser extensions kept working until 8 July 2025. After that, Pocket moved into export-only mode, and users had until 8 October 2025 to export saved articles, including their list, archive, favorites, notes and highlights.

We are writing this note in October 2026 because older ADHD tool roundups still recommend Pocket. A recommendation for an app that no longer exists is worse than none: you install nothing, lose ten minutes, and the open tabs stay open.

What should replace it?

The read-later card on our reading shelf is Instapaper: save the article now, read it later in a clean, ad-free view. Premium is $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and text-to-speech playlists sit behind Premium. The free tier covers saving and reading.

If what you actually do is open thirty tabs and never return, the better first move may be OneTab, a browser extension that collapses every open tab into one list. It is a KEEP card on the extensions shelf. The difference: Instapaper is for articles you intend to read; OneTab is for tabs you cannot bring yourself to close.

How do you stop a read-later list becoming a guilt pile?

Every read-later app has the same failure mode, and it is the catch line on our Instapaper card: a saved list becomes its own guilt pile. The fix is a rule, not a feature.

• Save freely, but read from the list only in a fixed slot, such as the first coffee of Saturday.
• Once a month, archive everything older than 30 days in bulk. Do not review it item by item.
• If an article matters for work, it goes in your work system, not the read-later list.
• If you would rather listen than read, use text-to-speech: Speak Screen is free on iPhone; see our Speak Screen guide.

What if I still have a Pocket export file?

If you exported before 8 October 2025, you have a file of your saved links. Many read-later services accept imports; check the import options in the app you choose before you start. Then apply the monthly-archive rule on day one, because an import of five years of saves is a guilt pile delivered in one go. Archive anything you do not recognize.

Why does this matter for ADHD readers?

Read-later apps lower the cost of a decision: you do not have to read the article now or lose it forever. That is support, not treatment, and it only works if the list stays small enough to be useful. A dead app in an old guide is a reminder to check dates on any tool recommendation, including ours; every card here carries a Checked date for that reason.

A quick test before you install anything

Open your browser and count the tabs you have open right now. If it is more than twenty, start with OneTab and skip the read-later app for a month. If it is under ten but you keep emailing yourself links, a read-later app is the right tool. The count tells you which problem you have, and it takes five seconds.