Looks like Kobo readers won’t lose the Pocket integration after all. Mozilla, the maker of Firefox and the current owner of Pocket, originally said in a support document that Kobo’s Pocket integration would stop working completely after August 15, 2023, when Pocket will require Firefox accounts to log in. In a statement to The edge (coincides with an update to that support document) Mozilla says now that existing users of the integration would not be affected and that Kobo would update their devices to use the new logins.
The original announcement that Kobo’s Pocket integration would no longer work was reported earlier this week by Goodeader.com and confirmed by The edge.
Sarah Vasquez, a senior communications manager at Mozilla, issued the following statement after this article was originally published:
Kobo is working to update the Pocket login on their eReaders to support Firefox accounts. The exact timing is yet to be determined, but Pocket’s existing Kobo users will not be affected, nor will they lose access to their accounts.
Please note that new Pocket accounts created after August 15 may not be able to access the existing Pocket login option, depending on when Kobo support becomes available.
The company has also updated its support pages with the above statement.
Currently, Kobo devices “do not support the specific modern web technologies that Firefox accounts require,” according to Mozilla, and will therefore not be able to use Firefox logins when the change is made unless they are updated. Mozilla says Firefox requires logins in Pocket in order to provide security features such as two-factor authentication.
Kobo’s Pocket integration works very well – it has two-way automatic syncing; provides a great reading experience, including easy-to-read fonts and article pagination; and supports search and other sorting functions. It is by far the best way to read web articles on an E Ink device. While you can send Pocket articles to Amazon’s Kindle devices through some third-party services, they only work one way and aren’t as easy to use or as well integrated as Kobo’s Pocket feature.
Kobo’s Pocket integration is the best way to read web articles on an E Ink device
There are E Ink devices from companies like Boox that support Android apps, and in theory Pocket should still be available on them after the Firefox account transition. But those depend on the Pocket Android app, which is designed for phones with color touchscreens, not the slow-refresh E Ink screens used on ebook readers. The Pocket Android app doesn’t support pagination and requires vertical scrolling to see more of an article, which is still a poor experience even on the latest E Ink devices. It also doesn’t have as nice fonts or presentation as the Kobo integration.
For those who have a Kobo and already use the Pocket integration: nothing should change, although it’s certainly possible that account access will be broken when Mozilla rolls out the changes later this summer. If you have a Kobo and haven’t yet linked your Pocket account to it, you may want to do so sooner rather than later, just to be on the safe side. The updated information about Kobo’s plans to continue support is still more promising than the original support documents which stated that the functionality would simply stop working.
Kobo and its parent company Rakuten have not yet issued any statement or advice to its customers regarding this impending change. I’ve reached out to the company for comment on the situation and will update this article if it responds.
Update, June 29, 1:02 PM ET: Mozilla statement added and article updated throughout with the new information in the support documents.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.