How Pocket Works
Meta's newest app, Pocket, is rolling out now, and it's built around something the company calls "gizmos" — small, AI-generated interactive experiences you can play instantly. Here's the idea: you type a prompt, and Pocket turns it into a playable mini-game you can share in a social feed for others to discover.
These aren't static, either. Gizmos respond to touch, react when you tilt your phone, work with sound effects and music, and can even pull from your camera or photo library to make the experience feel more personal.
Pocket first showed up on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store in late June 2026, but Meta isn't pushing it out everywhere at once. Right now, it's only available in select regions, which points to the company testing the product before going for a wider release.
Where Pocket Came From: The Atma Sciences Deal
Pocket didn't appear out of thin air. It traces back to Meta's acquisition, earlier this year, of the team behind Atma Sciences Inc. — a startup that had already built a similar app called Gizmo, centered on AI-generated interactive content. Along with bringing that team in-house, Meta also picked up a non-exclusive license to Atma Sciences' technology. The company hasn't said what it paid, but the deal gave Meta both the people and the technical groundwork it needed to build Pocket into a standalone product.
Pocket's Place in Meta's Growing Lineup of AI Apps
Pocket fits into a bigger pattern at Meta. Rather than folding every new AI feature into Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp, the company has been building standalone apps around specific creative formats. Pocket is one. Vibes — an app for AI-generated video that Meta started testing in early 2026 after strong engagement inside its main Meta AI app — is another.
The way it breaks down: Meta AI acts as the hub for the company's generative tools, while apps like Pocket and Vibes carve out focused spaces built around one particular kind of creation. For Pocket, that space is a social feed where people can browse gizmos made by users around the world — a detail first reported by Business Insider when it covered the app's rollout.