The Wayfarer tool will be one of the most important innovations for players of Pokémon GO. This tool allows you to review PokéStop suggestions. Completely without Ingress.
What was announced? The developers of Pokémon GO introduce Niantic Wayfarer. With this, you can help shape future adventures in Pokémon GO and other titles from Niantic like Ingress or Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The tool is meant to examine and approve or reject submissions of interesting places.
In plain language, this means: If you suggest stops or gyms for Pokémon GO in the future, they do not have to be verified by Ingress players as before. Pokémon GO players can do this as well.
Since June 2019, you can submit PokéStop suggestions in Germany without Ingress.
What happens to OPR? Wayfarer originated in “Operation Portal Recon”, which was originally developed for Ingress players so they could submit and verify new portals.
With Wayfarer, a part of the Niantic player base will have the opportunity to review nominations for interesting places like museums, art or historical sites and approve them. These will then become PokéStops, gyms or portals.
Niantic explains why PokéStops are not accepted.
When will the feature come? There is currently no exact release date for Niantic Wayfarer for Pokémon GO players. However, the developers state on the blog that the feature will be available before the New Year for selected Pokémon GO players. Currently, Ingress agents of level 10 and above can log in there. What requirements the trainers must meet to be “selected” is still unclear.
Here is the website for Niantic Wayfarer
Why is Wayfarer important?
The process will be easier: For many players, it was previously a hassle to first create an Ingress account, then level it up to finally be able to view and edit suggestions for stops and gyms.
Additionally, many Pokémon GO players did not understand why players from another game should check their suggestions. Due to the popularity of Pokémon GO, many more suggestions emerged that Ingress players were supposed to edit.
New interface: A new interface is supposed to simplify the handling of suggestions. A player on Reddit already showed what Wayfarer looks like:
In addition, Niantic now uses the term “Wayspot” instead of Portal. This creates a uniform term that can be applied to every product from Niantic.
Are you looking forward to the tool and will you use it?
