Pokémon Go’s nearby tracker undergoes another change in worldwide expansion

The updated version of Pokémon Go’s local Pokémon tracker is now available to players across the globe, and with it comes some additional changes meant to appease those who didn’t love the new feature when it first launched. While Pokémon Go fans acknowledge that Niantic, the game’s developer, is listening to their complaints, the revised Nearby Pokémon tracker doesn’t seem to have squashed them all.

“To provide a better experience when searching for Pokémon in the real world, we have also made some changes to the way the Nearby Pokémon feature functions when there are only a few PokéStops in range,” the development team wrote in a blog post.

Since the Nearby tracker relies upon players having a variety of PokéStops in their vicinity to work, the update brings back a system that benefits those in more rural areas. Sightings, which replaced the Nearby Pokémon feature after Niantic disabled it for bug fixing this summer, is back on the Pokémon tracking page.

Many players have noticed that if there are only a few PokéStops nearby, they’ll have both the Nearby and Sightings headings appear to show different kinds of Pokémon in the area. Once there are more than three Pokémon near PokéStops, however, Sightings disappears again.

Sightings went away when the new Nearby tracker rolled out in some states last month, but some players are still unhappy now that it’s back. They’re frustrated that they can only view Sightings when there aren’t many Pokémon visible in the Nearby section.

“I wish they gave the option to switch between the two. I work in a place that has a high density of stops so I'm not getting Sightings,” reads a top post on The Silph Road, a major Pokémon Go Reddit community. “I don't really care that a freakin' Pidgey is close to a particular stop. I'd rather be given the choice to see what's immediately around me so that I don't miss out on an important 'mon.”

Instead, many players want a separate section for Sightings. That way, they’ll be able to see more Pokémon in the approximate area, instead of being forced to go to longer distances in search of specific spots where Pokémon reside.

In sum, it appears that Pokémon Go players are inching closer to feeling satisfied with the state of the controversial in-game tracker. Although Niantic has made amends several times over now, the company hasn’t quite perfected the heavily requested system.