Pocket Save URL Prompt

✋ What is it?

This is a solution found in the Pocket mobile apps (iOS and Android). When a user copies a URL from their mobile browser and the opens Pocket, the app will automatically detect that there's a URL in the clipboard and will prompt the user to save the URL to their list.

🤲 How does this interaction or solution work?

Pocket is a multi-OS app that allows users to save articles, videos and other content from the web. Once saved to Pocket, the list of content is visible on any device — phone, tablet or computer.

When users are browsing the web, and they want to save content to Pocket, they can do it by using the built-in share functionality of most mobile browsers. However, this is not the only functionality used for saving content.

Sometimes users copy URLs sent to them via messages.

Many users rely on copying the URLs directly from the browsing bar because they are not aware of the built-in browser functionality that allows them to push content directly to Pocket.

In those cases, users will copy the URL and then open the app in which they are expecting to save the content. Then they would likely try to find a compose flow to keep that URL.

Pocket simplifies that process and completely removes the need of a compose flow by automatically detecting if there's a URL in the clipboard.

If this is the case, then Pocket will show a snack-bar dialogue at the bottom of the app, prompting the users to add that URL to their saved list.

After that, there's nothing else to do and the user can either leave the app or interact with the saved content.

🙌 How does this interaction or solution work?

Reducing Friction and Just in Time

This is a fantastic example of a solution that is capable of eliminating the need for a long flow of user actions and pageviews.

By proactively checking what's inside the user's clipboard, Pocket can determine their attempted path and action within the app.

If a user has a URL in his/her clipboard, and they open an app which nature is to save and index URLs, there's a high probability that what they want to do is save/bookmark that URL.

Pocket gets ahead of this potential action, by automatically showing, at the right time, a clear call to action to perform that action in a single step. Also, by doing this Pocket is exponentially decreasing the amount of effort needed to save content to their app, and therefore allowing them to preserve all the real estate and cognitive layer to other activities like consuming/reading the bookmarked content.