Pokemon GO is a game about tracking and catching Pokemon, so fans weren’t thrilled when the game’s tracking feature broke less than a week after launch.
Worse still, an update removed the broken tracking feature entirely rather than fix it, and developer Niantic proceeded to shut down external sites that helped fans hunt Pokemon (though it had its reasons, to be fair).
You might not have noticed, but a new update was quietly rolled out recently. While the tracking system still hasn’t been fixed, we now have clear evidence that Niantic is working hard on a new feature that helps us hunt down nearby Pokemon.
It’s worth noting that this new system seems to only be being tested with a ‘subset of users’. Going by this Reddit thread, it seems to be folk around the San Francisco area.
As far as I can see, the update has yet to hit the UK, and for most people, the nearby feature has simply been changed to something called sightings – see below.
It appears that those testing the new tracking beta now have the UI split in to two distinct sections. ‘Nearby’ Pokemon are creatures near certain PokeStops.
Tapping on one will zoom out to the map, telling you which PokeStop you should head towards – the Pokemon you’re looking for should then be by that PokeStop.
Pokemon under ‘Sightings’ meanwhile, seem to work exactly as the currently broken system does – meaning it’ll be nearby, but you have no way of knowing exactly where – check it out in action below.
Again, this is just a test and could change massively before it’s rolled out to everyone. It’s certainly encouraging to see that Niantic are working on a new system to track Pokemon though.
With any luck, this could bring a whole bunch of fed-up players back to the fold.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.