This week I’m going to slightly deviate from the typical news app reviews. However the app in today’s focus, in my opinion, is essential to reading news on the go. Today i’m talking about Pocket, formerly known as Read it Later. The idea of Pocket is extremely simple: Save stories to pocket and read them later whenever and wherever you want. Most news apps have a plugin for Pocket (such as aforementioned Pulse) or the share button which you can link to Pocket. Most news apps offers a saving feature but it is specific to that app. Pocket allows you to save stories,websites, images, YouTube videos all in the same place. Making an account takes ten seconds. Organization within Pocket is great. It’s available for  iOS, Android, and there’s a website to access everything in your “Pocket.” Get the reference of the name now? Overall I love pocket and I use it on a regular basis to save stories that sound interesting. The basic use of Pocket can be described this way: Say before class you’re browsing through stories on Pulse/Reader/Currents/Online and class is about to start. You stumble onto a story you’d like to read but don’t have the time at the moment. Simply place that story in Pocket and it’s saved for later. You can recall stories online or through the app. It links back to the original website the item is hosted on and you can delete old items from pocket with one click. Pocket makes staying up to date with your news even easier and I highly recommend using it. The interface is clean and simple. Pocket even applies filters to the things you save so it’s easy to separate videos, stories, and pictures with a click. Even if you save a lot of stories within Pocket, not to worry, there is a search feature by both title and URL so you never lose a thing. Those familiar with tagging will be right at home as well. Pocket supports adding tags to everything saved within Pocket for easier access later. Other cool functions include the Archive and Favorite options. Say you found a list of recipes you want to recall later but you don’t want them to appear on the home page of your Pocket. Simply archive them and they’re automatically saved but backdated and filed in a different area. Favorites work similar to bookmarks only with Pocket. Another great aspect of Pocket is that it can download the stories you save directly onto your mobile device for offline reading. So before you get on the plain and lose network connectivity not to worry, you can save plenty of reading material. The functionality is so easy almost any person can figure it out in seconds. Pocket serves a very good purpose to the mobile community. From standing in line at the store, waiting for class to start, waiting for food to cook, or just generally anywhere, Pocket has your back.

Check out the video from the developer:

Grab it for Android from the Play Store, iOS App Store, or online at getpocket.com

-AJ