Meta launches AI-focused Pocket app unlike original

Meta has launched a new app called Pocket that has no relation to the read-it-later service previously operated by Mozilla.

Meta reuses the Pocket name for an AI social feed. The app lets users create and share interactive "gizmos" built from an AI prompt. Gizmos respond to touch, phone tilt, sound effects, favorite songs, camera input or photos from a user's camera roll, according to Meta's Google Play description.

Some gizmos can reason about the world around them. When posting a gizmo, users can choose to let others remix it. Meta describes a gizmo as a "playable AI-generated experience" on its help center page.

The app follows Meta's acquisition of technology from Atma Sciences. Meta hired engineers from Atma Sciences Inc., the company behind an app called Gizmo, as Business Insider reported in March. Meta received a non-exclusive license to use the company's technology, and screenshots of Pocket on Google Play show it looks similar to Gizmo.

This launch aligns with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision of AI as the new social media. He has previously described how users could use AI to make interactive experiences and share them with others. The Pocket app appears to be one manifestation of that idea.

Pocket remains unavailable in the US for now. Two US-based Verge staffers saw a note on the Google Play listing stating the app "isn't available in your country." It cannot be found on Apple's US App Store. Meta notes in its help center that the app is "not yet available everywhere."

Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge. Mozilla shut down the original Pocket app last year. The new version shifts entirely away from saving articles toward AI-driven social sharing.