Some trainers in Pokémon GO report receiving a notification about a new social feature in the game that wants to access contacts. We took a look at what this notification is about and what the trainers are saying.
What happened? In the community on reddit, reports are piling up from trainers who received a notification from Pokémon GO while accessing their friends list in the game. As you can see in the following image, a new social feature called “Niantic Social” is announced.
It is evident that Niantic wants to access trainers’ contacts in the future. This unsettles some players, as they express on reddit. For example, Bennguyen2 writes: “I’m not giving them any information about my contact list. Good thing I denied contact permissions in the app settings.” (via reddit.com).
What the notification is about
As seen in the statement from Niantic, contacts are supposed to be used so that trainers can find other players from their contact list to invite them as friends in Pokémon GO. A similar function already exists in the game for the Facebook friends list. Those who are connected to Facebook in Pokémon GO have the option to search for other trainers in their contact list.
Due to the “Continue” button in the notification, some trainers are now unsettled as they do not wish to share their contacts. However, this notification is merely information, as reddit user Duarjo clearly points out in his post.
He writes: “For those worried about it just saying ‘Continue,’ it means to continue to the notice … To activate the feature, a separate option will appear, and you will have to grant permission to the app from your phone; it’s not something Niantic does without your permission.” (via reddit.com)
What the community says about the announced feature
Trainers on reddit are not enthusiastic about this new feature. Some express concerns regarding privacy. User inksquid256 writes: “Niantic wants to farm your contact list. It’s supposed to ‘help’ you find more friends from your contacts” (via reddit.com).
Trainer EnterNameRightHere also asks in his post: “My question is whether I appear to those who allow access to their contacts because I’m in their contact list? Even though it’s a feature I DO NOT want?” (via reddit.com)
NordKettle suspects that this is an update to better communicate with friends. He also hopes this will lead to the introduction of an in-game chat and a way to increase trading distance (via reddit.com).
In June, Niantic announced new social features in their games to the website Bloomberg. These should help trainers coordinate their meetings better in the future. Many trainers hoped for the long-awaited introduction of an in-game chat.
So far, nothing further is known about the specific implementation of this new feature. If there are new updates, you can read about them here on MeinMMO.
What do you think about the new social feature? Will you share your contact details from your phone for the game? And what do you hope for in terms of new developments in the game through this feature? Feel free to share your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments.
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