In Pokémon GO , an update has removed an important feature: No footprints are displayed in “Nearby” anymore.
Normally, players of Pokémon Go should see “footprints” in the app indicating how close a Pokémon is. Similar to “Hot or Cold”, it would be an indicator to see: Am I walking in the right direction or am I moving away from the Pokémon?
But the problem was: The feature had been buggy for a while. It simply indicated that every Pokémon was “three footprints away” – this issue became known as the “Nearby” bug.
No more footprints in Pokémon GO
Now many had hoped that the developers at Niantic would address the problem with an update. They did, but not in the hoped-for way, rather radically. The latest update 0.31 in the Google Play Store and 1.1.0 on Apple has completely removed the feature. Now, no footprints will be shown in “Nearby” in Pokémon GO.
This could also become sensitive because the CEO of Niantic, John Hanke, announced in a recent interview that “tracking apps” would no longer be usable. Such tracking apps like Poké Radar were just used by players to bypass the “footprint” bug.
Some fans of Pokémon GO are already reacting angrily
The patch just came on Saturday evening, but there are already heated discussions about the direction Niantic is taking. Users of the Pokémon GO app, in particular, are complaining about the company’s lack of communication.
They should have talked to the players, admit the difficulties, and present the solution they are planning instead of placing players in front of completed facts. And the fact that this coincides with the announced measures against “tracking apps” is also unfortunate.
This is the general tenor that the discussion strikes at various places on the net.
The featured image for this post comes from the site “smartdroid.”.
