Pokemon GO’s Best Remaining Trackers

Pokemon Go

Ahead of Pokemon GO‘s big February update, which added 80 new monsters, Niantic and the Pokemon Company did a big sweep of third-party Pokemon trackers. Very few mobile apps are still live. And in case you’re still unsatisfied with Pokemon GO‘s in-game tracker, we’ve compiled them for you.

Waves of cease-and-desist letters brought down over a dozen third-party trackers since the mobile game’s explosive July, 2016 release. There’s a reason why so many popped up in the first place: Pokemon GO‘s native tracker was widely considered garbage. Until recently, the game’s “Nearby” or “Sightings” features didn’t work, barely worked or weren’t accessible to everybody. Late last year, Niantic introduced a new PokeStop-based tracker that fans have come around to.

Players who’d prefer a more targeted tracking option must look elsewhere, though. Third-party apps cut out the wandering and exploring that Pokemon GO‘s tracker encourages by directing players to specific locations for specific Pokemon.

Around January 20th, widely-used tracking apps like Pokemap finally folded. On Pokemap’s website, the team explained that the Pokemon Company went after them for their copyrighted images of Pokemon and unauthorised access to Niantic’s servers. Its creator told me that the Pokemap team thinks that Pokemon Go‘s January server issues contributed to the ban wave.

“With the server issues, Niantic would have wanted to decrease the server loads as much as possible to try and get them to be stable again. That would have caused them to go after people who are accessing the servers without using Pokemon GO, so 3rd party apps like Pokemap etc.,” he said.

The remaining working tracker apps generally steer clear of obvious Pokemon IP. There are only about two for Android and three for iOS, plus several web-based ones. Here’s what’s left.

For mobile:

PokiiMap (Android)

Not entirely user-friendly, but quite effective. It describes itself as “PokeVision on Android.” You’ll receive notifications for selected Pokemon in your vicinity, which the donation-based app scans every two minutes. Thankfully, it tells you when Pokemon disappear, so you won’t be going on too many child goose chases.

PokeSensor (Android and iOS)

An accurate, but again, hard-to-parse app for scans up to 1.25 miles. It’s free and highly-rated, but doesn’t show users when Pokemon un-spawn or images of Pokemon.  

PokeTracker (iOS)

PokeTracker has a ton of filters and lets you hide Pokemon you’ve already caught. Users receive notifications for desired Pokemon and can see gyms and PokeStops. Its pro version is $US2.99 ($4).

PokeWhere (iOS)

PokeWhere has helpful pictures of tracked Pokemon plus a count-down to de-spawns. Its pro version is $US4.49 ($6) and it’s not as highly-rated as other apps. It doesn’t require an account to use, so your main account can stay safe from Niantic’s ban hammer.

On Web for U.S. or global:

PokeHunter.co

You can scan any location on PokeHunter. It’s pretty fast, with only a few seconds delay, and precise, too. Sometimes, it requires a few tries.

PokeSear.ch

It’s often down, but an accurate and easy-to-use tracker that lets you scan any location.

Alongside web-based global trackers are a slew of location-specific ones serving anywhere from Christchurch, New Zealand to Windsor, California. This helpful list on Reddit encompasses most of them.

When using trackers that draw from Pokemon GO accounts, remember to make a new account. By using your primary one, you’re risking all that hard work you put in cannibalising Pidgeys for each other.