Pocket, formerly called Read It Later is an app to view web content offline. If you are one of those who wish to read news articles and blog post even when not connected to the internet, this app is all you need. You only view the stripped down web pages, devoid of all the side content and advertisements. The best part about Pocket is that it is available on iOS, Android, desktop and as browser extensions. Pocket can also be accessed online via getpocket.com. But first let us dive deep into what Pocket can do for you.

Pocket essentially is a bookmarks app with the added ability to store a webpage for offline viewing. To start with, create an account at Pocket. All the saved pages will be linked to your account. Now, you can save webpages from your desktop browser, cache it and read the same pages on your mobile which does not have an internet connection. Pretty cool!

One can save websites to Pocket either from the browsers or from supported apps. If you are not a fan of browser extensions, a javascript bookmarklet is also available. To save any site, all you need to do is simply click the Pocket button. On Chrome, you will be greeted with a nice confirmation page, where you can even add tags to the saved page.

On mobile devices, one can easily use the share feature commonly seen in all apps in both iOS and Android to savea webpage for offline reading. Some apps like Flipboard, Dolphin Mobile browser, Pulse, Twitter, etc. have inbuilt feature to save pages offline on Pocket. The best part about Pocket is you need only provide the link and it will save the offline version of the web page on your device. To that extent you can even send the link via email and Pocket will do the rest.

To view the pages saved in Pocket, you can head to getpocket.com. You can see all the pages bookmarked through Pocket icon or shared by other apps. Click on any of the articles to see the page stripped of any side content and ads. You can also change the settings, which includes night mode, font size and font style. You can also view the full web page as it is and mark the page as favorite, which appears in the favorite list.

You can also view the offline pages on the standalone apps, available on iOS, Android and Mac. The standalone app basically provides the same functionality as the web app, but with offline access. Pocket provides you the option to download the web pages to be saved either automatically or on WiFi connection or when loading the app. The settings page also give you control on the rotation lock, night mode, store in SD Card (Android) and more. You can also choose whether to download only the stripped down version or include the full site.

Another part to Pocket is the ability to archive the posts. Pocket allows you to archive the post that you have already gone through, but would like to get back again in the future. Of course it lets you delete the sites saved.

There are some nifty features as well, such as Text-to-Speech, page flip animations, manage site subscriptions available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Pocket is a great app for viewing content offline and has additional features as well, extended to a wide variety of platforms making it a killer app, if you do a lot of reading and writing.

Source: Pocket, Google Play, Apple App Store, Mac App Store