Pokemon Go Update Includes New Nearby Pokemon Feature – But Only Some Can See It

Niantic is testing a major update to Pokemon Go that could make it significantly easier for players to find nearby Pokemon.

Trainers have been aimlessly wandering the streets in search of the little monsters since last month, when Niantic removed its broken tracking feature and third party Pokemon mapping sites were shut down.

But developers are now trialling a new tracking feature on a subset of users, most of whom, TechCrunch reports, appear to be in San Francisco, Niantic’s home. Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer is one of the chosen few. He posted this short video on Twitter:

Alex Leavitt also posted this video to YouTube:

Both videos clearly show a list of nearby Pokemon with each positioned in front of a Pokestop. Clicking to view the Pokemon makes the map zoom out, show you where the Pokestop is located.

If the feature is rolled out universally, it will be by far the biggest update to the game yet, making it almost as easy to locate nearby Pokemon as it was with Pokevision and other third party “cheat” sites.

Most users will see a new “sightings” sections which displays wild Pokemon that aren’t near to a Pokestop. At present, this feature doesn’t seem to be any more useful than the old system, given that the Pokemon don’t appear to be ranked by distance right now.

The update comes with a few minor changes too, including, among others, a fix for a bug that prevented “nice”, “great” and “excellent” throws from awarding XP, the ability to change usernames once, improved accuracy for a curveball throw, a fix for issues with battery saving mode, and dialogue to remind trainers not to play while travelling above a certain speed.

There’s indication yet on when the nearby feature might be introduced more widely, nor whether it will look anything like it currently does in its beta form.

So in the meantime, take a look at our top ten list of the best places to hunt rare Pokemon in the UK:

1. Tower of London - Koffing, Tentacool, Hitmonlee, Sandshrew, Polywhirl, Dragonite
2. Regent’s Park - Snorlax, Machop, Geodude, Mankey, Kabuto, Koffing
3. ZSL London Zoo - Electabuzz, Ryhorn, Dratini, Beedrill, Doduo, Horsea
4. Hampton Court Palace - Magmar, Ghastly, Horsea
5. York Boat - Blastoise, Snorlax, Ponyta
6. York Museum Gardens - Hypno, Dratini, Growlithe, Seaking
7. Edinburgh Zoo - Lickitung
8. Manchester Cathedral - Haunter
9. Museum of Liverpool - Golbat, Dratini, Charmander
10. Cadbury World - Magnemite, Fearow, Jigglypuff