App of the week: Pocket

Welcome back to our weekly spotlight on helpful apps. We focus on a variety of products that are useful for work, personal use, or both, providing our own thoughts on the apps and what you can do with them. This week we look at how to maximise your reading time with Pocket.

An intro to Pocket
If you’re anything like me, you’ll often find articles online that you really want to read but don’t have the time to do so right that moment. You can copy and save the link to your notes or add it to your bookmarks, but what if you spot it during a break on your work computer and want to read it later?

Pocket offers a simple solution by allowing you to save articles, videos and more from the web to view at your leisure on any device. You can add an article to your Pocket account on your work computer and access it at home on your phone or tablet. So no more missing out on reading the latest piece from PA Life.

It’s a pretty all-encompassing platform, available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Kindle Fire, Kobo, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera and Windows. Plus, you can access your saved articles through Pocket’s website, so you can read them practically anywhere.

Our review
I’m the kind of person who does a lot of browsing on my phone and tablet when I get home from work. I’ll spot articles and videos on Facebook that I want to read, but when I see how long some of them are I back off because I have other things to do. Yet I’ve never found a good solution to keep me from forgetting to go back and read something later.

Pocket is especially useful for me because I do a lot of my research by looking for relevant articles at other publications. As soon as I started saving articles to my Pocket account, the app started recommending pieces related to what I was already reading. It’s a great way to stay on top of news about a particular topic, such as the latest PA tips or advice on how to stay productive.

You can set up a full profile and “follow” friends who also use Pocket. If you recommend an article, all of your friends will be able to see it and read it themselves – brilliant for people who want to start a conversation around the news.

The verdict
Pocket is the perfect little app for people who love reading. I downloaded it a couple of weeks ago and started saving articles right away, then read some of them on a recent train journey. While the system throws some oddballs into the list of recommendations, most of the links it shows me are relevant and interesting. It’s a must-have if you’re constantly starting articles and never finishing them.

Do you have a favourite new app you’d like to review for us? Send it to Deputy Editor Molly Dyson at molly.dyson@palife.co.uk.