A POPULAR phone app with more than 30 million users is shutting down forever in weeks.
The app was used “billions” of times, but will go offline for good in early July.
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Pocket is a beloved app that let users save content to read later.
It’s currently owned by Mozilla, which is the tech giant behind the Firefox web browser (a rival to Microsoft Edge, Apple’s Safari, and Google Chrome).
Mozilla says it wants to focus on Firefox instead, and has decided to shut down Pocket permanently as a result.
“We’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025,” the Pocket team said in a statement.
“Thank you for being part of our journey over the years.
“We’re proud of the impact Pocket has had for our users and communities.”
Pocket first launched back in mid-2007 as a browser extension for Mozilla Firefox.
It was originally called Read It Later, and quickly grew to have millions of users.
The service rebranded to Pocket in 2012, and its app ended up being used by tens of millions of people around the world.
In early 2017, Pocket revealed that it had been acquired by Mozilla.
Then just a few weeks ago, Mozilla confirmed that Pocket would shut down in July – with user data and accounts due for deletion in October.
“As users’ everyday needs evolve alongside the web itself, it’s imperative we focus our efforts on Firefox,” Mozilla said.
“And building new solutions that give you real choice, control, and peace of mind online.
“With that in mind, we’ve made the difficult decision to phase out two products.
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“Pocket, our read-it-later and content discovery app, and Fakespot, our browser extension that analyses the authenticity of online product reviews.”
SHUT DOWN EXPLAINED
The app itself (and browser extensions) will shut down totally on July 8, 2025.
Your data will be retained until October 8 – so that gives you a chance to export your “saves”.
But after that date, all of the data will vanish completely.
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That includes your account, which will be automatically deleted on October 8.
Some Pocket users will also be owed refunds.
This is the case if you have a Pocket Premium account that you’ve paid for on an annual basis.
So the refund will be based on the time that was left on your subscription after the shut down (July 8).
Pocket refunds – how it works
Here’s the official guidance from Pocket…
For monthly subscribers:
- We will begin disabling automatic renewal of monthly subscriptions immediately.
- You can continue to enjoy the benefits of Pocket Premium until the end of the monthly subscription period.
- You will not be charged again, so no refund will be necessary.
- No action is required from you.
For annual subscribers:
- On July 8, 2025, Annual subscriptions will be cancelled and Annual users will receive a prorated refund automatically to the original payment method.
- No action is needed from you.
Picture Credit: Pocket
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You should get this back automatically to the payment method that you originally used to pay for Pocket Premium.
The Pocket app has already vanished from app stores.
But it can be reinstalled if you already had it but deleted it, right up until October 8, 2025.
If you’ve stilled got the app, you’ll need to delete it yourself. It won’t vanish on its own – but it will stop working.
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