Several months ago, Niantic announced that trainers all over the world would soon be able to submit suggestions for PokéStops in Pokémon GO . But to this day, that is still not possible in Germany. Why is that?
What is the problem? Pokémon GO connects the real world with a mobile game. At interesting locations in the real world, such as the Eiffel Tower or a football stadium, you can find a gym or a PokéStop in Pokémon GO.
But these can also be local interesting places like cafés or shops in a smaller town.
These stops and gyms are important for players. You get items there that can be used in the game or battle in raids against rare monsters to catch them afterwards.
In many places, there are few or no stops and gyms. Especially in rural areas, this is a big problem. In cities, such interesting places can be found everywhere. In the countryside, sometimes there’s nothing within a radius of kilometers. Players have few opportunities to collect items there.
And currently, you can only suggest stops if you play Ingress. But not everyone wants to do that.
What Niantic has announced: Because the stops and gyms currently rely on reports from Ingress (another game by Niantic), there are currently only a few stops. Niantic wants to change that.
Already in September 2018, the developers announced that they would test the function for submitting PokéStops in Brazil and Korea as a beta phase. After that, they intend to roll out the program to other countries.
Players can suggest spots that they consider important as PokéStops using the function. Other trainers will then verify whether the suggestion meets the criteria, and if everything is fine, the location will become a stop or gym.
In places with few stops, this function is urgently desired.
Why do we still have to wait? The function for submitting PokéStops is still in a beta phase, so it is still being tested. Gradually, Niantic is enabling individual countries to try out this function.
There is no official information on which country will be invited to the tests next.
Which countries are already part of the tests?
- India – Since May 9, 2019
- Denmark – Since April 24, 2019
- Taiwan – Since April 11, 2019
- El Salvador – Since March 27, 2019
- Guatemala – Since March 27, 2019
- Nicaragua – Since March 27, 2019
- Costa Rica – Since March 27, 2019
- Panama – Since March 27, 2019
- Honduras – Since March 27, 2019
- Belize – Since March 27, 2019
- Ecuador – Since March 27, 2019
- Bolivia – Since March 27, 2019
- Colombia – Since March 27, 2019
- Uruguay – Since March 27, 2019
- Paraguay – Since March 27, 2019
- Suriname – Since March 27, 2019
- Venezuela – Since March 27, 2019
- Guyana – Since March 27, 2019
- Indonesia – Since March 14, 2019
- Peru – Since February 27, 2019
- Vietnam – Since February 14, 2019
- Argentina – Since January 31, 2019
- Thailand – Since October 31, 2018
- Mexico – Since October 17, 2018
- Brazil and South Korea – Since September 18, 2018
Recently, on March 27, 2019, there was a big wave of new countries allowed to take part in the tests for suggesting PokéStops. If Niantic continues at such a rapid pace, there will soon be many more countries able to submit stops.
How do you submit suggestions for PokéStops? When the function is enabled, it will initially only be for players who have reached level 40. There are certain criteria to be considered for new stops because not every location is interesting.
We have an introduction for you that you should consider when the suggestions for PokéStops are activated.
