‘Pokemon GO’ Official Tracker At Hand As FastPokeMap Finally Surrenders, Third-Party Services Continue The Fight

It might be too early to tell, but it appears like the time when Pokemon GO trackers were the only option for players to scan nearby Pokemon-spawning areas is about to end. With Niantic seemingly on the verge of rolling out an official tracking feature in the game and with one of the most reliable and accurate third-party trackers, FastPokeMap, finally calling it quits, the Pokemon GO community seems to be in the brink of yet another massive transition.

Pokemon GO‘s tracking feature has been a point of controversy since it was briefly rolled out and subsequently pulled out when the title launched a few months ago. With the introduction and cessation of Pokemon GO‘s official tracking feature, a number of third-party trackers and other similar services emerged, providing millions of players with a means to determine which monsters were spawning in nearby areas, which is something that the actual Pokemon GO game is unable to do.

Immediately after the official tracking feature was pulled out from Pokemon GO, a third-party application, PokeVision, emerged to provide players with an alternative way to find Pokemon in nearby areas. With Niantic’s firm stance against third-party trackers, however, PokeVision soon had to shut down. Despite this, it did not take long before yet another alternative emerged. Called FastPokeMap, the third-party tracker proved itself as an ideal replacement for the ill-fated PokeVision. Millions of Pokemon GO players were quick to embrace the tracker, with FastPokeMap providing tracking services for millions of players worldwide.

FastPokeMap did not have an easy time staying operational. With Niantic’s constant efforts to curb third-party trackers, FastPokeMap was forced offline numerous times. Every time it gets shut down, however, it simply gets back up. This is, until Niantic’s latest round of updates that were rolled out last week. Once the update hit, FastPokeMap was definitively rendered useless, and its developer decided to throw in the towel.

Farewell FastPokeMap, Hello Local Maps and SF trackers.

Read: https://t.co/tAgDyKN70s

— Ex-FastPokeMap | Shadow | My Sanity Wasted (@MySanityWasted) November 5, 2016

The surrender of FastPokeMap was a huge victory for Niantic, especially since the tracker was one of the most persistent third-party services that players of Pokemon GO supported. During its peak, FastPokeMap became the 300th most visited website on the internet. Thus, Niantic’s ability to finally curb such an operation is an unquestionable accomplishment.

Fortunately for Pokemon GO fans, the effects of FastPokeMap’s final departure might not be that prominent at all, since Niantic itself appears to be getting ready to roll out a new tracking feature for the game. Over the last few months, the developer of the augmented reality hit title has been testing a revamped Nearby function in the San Francisco area, and while there has been no official word as to how successful the initial test was, Niantic recently stated that the tests would be expanded to parts of Arizona and Seattle. Thus, there is a pretty good chance that the revamped Nearby function would see a global rollout soon.

Seemingly taking a page out of Clash of Clans developer Supercell’s playbook, Niantic has also announced that it would be actively interacting with its vast user base with regard to the effectiveness and usefulness of the upcoming revamped Nearby feature. The developer further stated that it would be open to modifying the function depending on how the community responds to it. Considering how most of the problems in Pokemon GO has been rooted in Niantic being quite distant from its user base, the developer’s stance has been very welcome.

The story of third-party trackers has not ended with the surrender of FastPokeMap, however, as a number of third-party trackers have opted to continue their operations despite Niantic’s increasing efforts to stop them. Currently, PokeAlert, which functions much like FastPokeMap, still works, though its services are exclusive only to Android users. Pokemon GO players who use iOS devices need not fear, however, as GoRadar, another third-party tracker, continues to be operational. Though not as robust as FastPokeMap, GoRadar would be able to provide players of the augmented reality game a means to get by, until such time that Niantic’s official tracker rolls out, at least.

Pokemon GO has experienced a steady decline in its active user base since it launched a few months ago. Despite its decline, however, Pokemon GO still remains as one of the biggest and most lucrative mobile titles in the market. What is pretty ironic, however, is that a significant number of its players use third-party trackers due to the absence of the feature in the game. With the departure of FastPokeMap, millions of players have lost the ability to effectively scan their nearby areas for Pokemon. It would now be up to Niantic to make sure it would be able to give players the tracking services they need to fully enjoy Pokemon GO. If Niantic is able to do this, Pokemon GO would surely be bigger than ever before.

[Featured Image by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images]