Pokévision Alternatives:
Best Pokémon Go
maps and trackers
The incredibly useful Pokévision is down indefinitely
following Niantic's decision to block third-party Pokemon Go map tools. Luckily, there are plenty of
alternatives. From PokéRadar to Trackemon, we've rounded up the best Pokémon Go
maps, apps, and trackers to help you catch 'em all.
It's been a while since Pokévision was shut down
by developer Niantic, but Pokétrainers have endeavoured to create numerous
replacements ever since. The original tool showed nearby creatures on a simple,
Google Maps-based layout, cutting out some of the guesswork involved in Pokémon
hunting.
Niantic claims Pokévision essentially amounted
to cheating, as it gave players an unfair advantage over those using Pokémon
Go's built-in tracker – a tracker which, incidentally, was removed in the
latest game update because it was so unreliable.
Pokévision creator Yang Liu responded in an
open letter posted to Medium, saying that his app didn't amount to cheating
because of the unreliability of the native tracker. Despite his impassioned
objection however, Pokévision remains dead in the water.
Gamers have therefore been stuck trying to find
and catch Pokémon the old fashioned way: actually walking around. But fear not,
there are some decent Pokévision alternatives out there.
Note that while this list is up-to-date at the
time of publication, many of these trackers, especially the mobile apps, are
liable to stop working or be removed at short notice.
Smart Poké, for example, was one of the most
popular Pokévision alternatives but was booted off the Google Play Store
roughly 48 hours after it came to our attention, while the Skiplagged map has
also ceased working – presumably the site sold enough flights and gave up.
That said, here’s a quick rundown of the best
Pokémon Go maps and trackers out there right now.
POKÉLOKÉ
Probably the most accurate map we’ve tried,
which we suspect is because it’s relatively new, PokéLoké surfaced on the App Store only two days ago, so
it’s yet to be removed or overloaded. It’s also accurate – we’ve double checked
it against Pokémon Go.
The app has a few neat features. Firstly, the
homepage tells you which Pokémon are currently nearby, letting you select the
ones you want to find and showing them on the map.
You can configure the app’s notification settings so that it alerts you when your most desired animal pops up. It even takes care of the travel, letting you know how long it will take you to get an Uber – just in case you’re desperate to catch that cheeky critter.
There is a catch, though. The app forces you to ‘scan’
every time you select a Pokémon but limits your usage to a tiny ten scans. It
then prompts you to provide your App Store details, something we’d definitely
advise you steer well clear of.
FASTPOKEMAP
Another temperamental browser-based map, but the
devs say they’re preparing some updates, so it's worth keeping an eye on. When
it works, FastPokeMap will show you the creatures in your area and
the time remaining until they leg it. You can also filter out certain Pokémon,
which makes it a little easier to use.
POKÉHUNTR
A different take on the standard Pokémap, Pokéhuntr allows you
to search for your location before doing a search for Pokemon in your area,
adding them to the map as it goes.
It doesn’t auto-update though, and it’s a bit of a laggard
when it comes to searching and locating the Pokémon. As such, this might not be
the most useful map for those Poké-hunting under a time limit.
POKÉFIND
The most intuitive of the Pokémon Go mapping
tools currently available, PokéFind lets
you choose the Pokémon you want to snare and then shows you its current
locations on a familiar Google Maps-based layout.
Not only that, it tells you where that elusive
Charmander was seen during the morning, afternoon and evening, thereby allowing
you to more effectively fit Pokéhunting into your daily routine.
The Evolution Calculator is a nice added touch.
Just select a Pokémon, input how many CP it currently has, and it'll give you a
rough idea of the minimum, average, and maximum CP to expect when you evolve
it.
To our eye, it's the best Pokémon Go app out there
right now.
POKÉWHERE
Pokewhere provides a fairly accurate picture of
the Pokémon in your surrounding area, aggregating data from a handful of
popular Pokémon Go maps and trackers as well as letting you upload crowdsourced
spots.
There's an integrated chat feature, as well,
though it's not overly active, and there don't seem to be any apps on offer,
meaning you'll have to toggle back and forth between the Pokémon Go app and
your browser.
Still, as a kind of 'bird's eye view' tool of
what to look out for near you, it's reasonably useful.
TRACKEMON
Trackmon was hailed on Reddit as the natural
successor to Pokévision, utilising many of the same the features of that made
the old site such a fan favourite. Its best function is the rare Pokémon
finder, which allows you to cut through the common critters and only search for
the monsters that are still outside of your Pokédex.
It is by no means perfect though, with trainers
the globe over complaining of it crashing at random and bemoaning its poor
performing scanning feature.
For its part, Trackemon posted to Reddit saying
that the site was still working, but was struggling to cope with the "high
volumes" of traffic it was experiencing. That said, it looks like Niantic
has succeeded in blocking the site's scan function.
That doesn't surprise us, as when we had a quick
play with it earlier, it looked the part. Give it a go and see if it works for
you.
POKÉMON NESTS CURATED MAP
This neat little tool won't
show you the locations of Pokémon in real-time, but it will tell you where the
creatures 'nest', i.e. where they're likely to spawn.
A key on the left-hand side shows you what all
the different icons relate to, and one of the nice things about using this
approach is that you can add it to your own Google Maps account.
While it's not the ideal solution for those who
want to know exactly where Pokémon spawn in real-time, it is a good way of not
taking all the fun out the game while still giving yourself a good chance of
catching the more elusive creatures.
There are more and more maps coming online every
day, and it seems most of them have issues of some sort. We'll keep our eye out
for any decent ones, though, and update this article regularly as we uncover
bigger and better tools to help you catch more Pokémon.
