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June 30, 2022
Introducing Campfire: Bringing More Real-World Social Experiences to Niantic Games

Hey Explorers,

In the coming days, we’ll begin the global rollout of Campfire, a new social app that helps Niantic Explorers discover new people, places and experiences around them.

Campfire gives the Niantic community a new way to experience the joy of real-world gameplay, meetups and events, providing a way for people to discover creations that make the world a magical and entertaining place.

We’ve been testing Campfire in beta with Ingress Agents over the last several months. We’ll start testing the experience to all Niantic games and players around the world soon, starting with select groups of Pokémon GO players throughout the summer. Please stay tuned to our social channels to learn about availability in your region.

When you open Campfire, you’ll see a dynamic map of your area with game experiences and activities from friends and other players dropped in specific locations nearby. On the upper right, you’ll see game icons that take you to each of your channels, or game-specific map views. You can switch between these channels as you move through different game experiences. 

Key features of Campfire include:

  • Nearby Communities: Easily find other players by checking out local communities around you. Open the discover page in your Communities tab to join new communities, coordinate events, and meet new players. For now, there will be a limited selection of communities available and more will be added over time.
  • Niantic Friends: Easily add and manage your friends across all Niantic titles.

  • Direct & Group Messaging: Organize all your chats with friends in one place. With Direct and Group messaging you can instantly share gyms/raids, drop your live location, post photos, and chat with your friends across any Niantic game. Sharing your location through messaging is optional and can last up to one hour, before turning off automatically.

  • Real-World Activities: Join and share official Community events, keep track of meetups with reminders, and easily invite your friends to play! Scroll around the map to discover and share content, coordinate at any gym or raid, and connect with your nearby communities.

Now when you’re playing a game, you can see if there are people playing nearby. If you’re traveling somewhere new, or just want to explore new areas of your city, the map is a fun way to explore. And if you meet up with others, you can send them a friend request and direct message to coordinate your next meetup.

In Pokémon GO, Trainers can also share Raid locations with friends in a direct message – or group chat – making it easy to get a team together quickly and efficiently. Or if you’re playing on your own, you can tap a specific place on the map and you’ll see the option to add a “Flare” to that location. Think of Flares like a call-to-action for everyone who sees it, encouraging other Trainers to head there and join in on the fun.

We’re excited to see the ways you use Campfire to foster the kinds of real-world connections that have always been at the heart of what Niantic does. Stay tuned as Campfire rolls out to your region over the coming months.

–The Niantic team


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