Niantic has officially rolled back the changes made to PokéStop and Gym interaction distances, reverting them to 80 meters after acknowledging the concerns of the Pokémon Go community.
With this change, the developers have confirmed that no future reductions will be made to the interaction distance and the 80m radius will remain as the default moving forward.
Additionally, Niantic confirmed the internal cross-functional task force that was created earlier this month will have more information to share on Sept. 1. This response team was formed in response to the initial outcry for the developers to listen to community feedback surrounding continued COVID-19 concerns and accessibility issues.
“Thank you to everyone who made your voices heard,” Niantic said. “We’ve heard you and understand that this has been a welcome benefit to many players. We’ll share more next week.”
These plans should clarify any additional changes to the developer’s initial plans to remove or limit many features implemented to Pokémon Go last year that helped players continue playing the game safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. And, hopefully for players, Niantic will continue taking feedback from or communicating more closely with fans when it comes to quality-of-life changes like this in the future.
