Pocket, the smart bookmarking and content discovery service that was recently acquired by Mozilla, just launched an iMessage app that is pretty nifty for those who use both services regularly.
I’ve been pretty frustrated with the lack of genuinely useful iMessage apps since its launch last September, but in Pocket I might have found something of use. The iMessage integration potentially means an end to copy and pasting links into chat windows and/or using Apple’s extensions. Plus, if like me you use Pocket a lot to stash good reads away for a rainy day, a newsletter or other reasons, your sharing of wisdom with others is about to become a whole lot more organized.
The app is easy to set up and use. You’ll want the iOS app on your device first of all. Once that’s in place, the iMessage app is configured by opening an iOS chat, selecting the App Store, then enabling the Pocket service via the “Manage” — that’s the tab with details of iOS apps on your phone that have iMessage app options.
Once you have the iMessage app, you’ll be able to share links you stored in Pocket with friends or groups on iMessage without the need to switch apps and copy/paste URLs. The integration shows your most recent saved links inside Pocket when open, but there’s also the option to search to find specific stories you filed away and you can expand the app if needed. Simple but effective.
Full details of the app are on the Pocket blog.