Pocket Shut Down — Here's How to Actually Resume Reading Long Articles

#productivity #webdev #chrome #reading

Mozilla shut Pocket down. The apps and the website stopped working on July 8, 2025, the extensions were pulled from stores back in May 2025, and the export window for your saved list closed in October 2025. (Mozilla's own support page has the timeline.)

If you were a Pocket user, you're probably looking for a "Pocket alternative" right now. Before you migrate your whole workflow, it's worth separating what Pocket actually did for you — because most people used it for one job, and that job has a much lighter solution.

What did you really use Pocket for?

Pocket bundled several things:

A save-for-later queue — a place to stash articles you'll read someday
Cross-device sync of that queue
Offline reading and a clean reader view
Not losing your place in a long piece you started

Be honest about which of these you actually used. For a lot of people, the queue filled up with hundreds of links they never returned to, and the real day-to-day value was #4: opening a long article, getting interrupted, and being able to pick up where they left off.

If you need the full archive-and-offline experience, there are heavier read-later apps that replace all of Pocket. But if what you miss is not losing your spot, you don't need to rebuild your whole reading stack — you need a bookmark that remembers your scroll position.

The manual ways (and where they fall short)

Chrome gives you a few half-measures:

Ctrl/Cmd+F the last sentence you remember — if you remember it, and if it's unique on the page.
A normal bookmark saves the page, not your position. You still land at the top and scroll.
Highlighter extensions work, but only if you remember to highlight before you get pulled away. Interruptions don't announce themselves.

They all share the same flaw: they need you to act ahead of the interruption.

The lightweight option: ReadMark

ReadMark is a free Chrome extension that saves your scroll position automatically, so reopening a page drops you back exactly where you stopped.

Automatic saving — it records your reading position as you scroll; there's no button to remember to press
One-click return — jump back to the saved spot, with a visual marker showing where you left off
Per-page tracking — positions are saved per URL, so a dozen half-read tabs each remember their own place
Kept in your browser — your positions live in local browser storage; with Pro they sync across your own devices through Chrome sync, and no ReadMark account is required

Honest scope: ReadMark is not a Pocket clone. It doesn't keep a save-for-later queue, download articles for offline reading, or give you a reader view. It does one thing — pick up long reads where you left off — and stays out of your way. If that was your real Pocket use case, it's a much lighter replacement than a full read-later app.

Free vs Pro

The free plan covers the core loop: save your position on up to 10 pages and jump back with one click.

ReadMark Pro unlocks unlimited saved positions plus folders, full-text search across everything you've marked, and export/import — $4.99/month, with a 7-day free trial if you want to try it first.