Niantic Campfire

I really like the app for a variety of reasons, especially connecting users. However, it could be more user friendly by fixing things like member search and adding things like the ability to sort group members. It would also be nice if you could link Campfire messaging to POGO, so you can click a friend and message them without having to search for them on Campfire, which also doesn't seem to work.

Campfire is part of Niantic's attempt to push local activities in Pokémon Go, but it's missing a lot of functionality. Though intended to encourage playing with people nearby, there isn't any distance slider for you to define "nearby". Because of this, I keep getting notifications from flares on the other side of the city, which really undermines the value of the app. Being able to set a distance radius would be a quick fix, but won't solve the problem - it needs user-defined local areas.

This app could be a lot better with minor improvements. The first problem has to do with timing and distance defaults. the app only lets you light a flare at a nearby stop for 10 minutes. At the same time, it will notify you of any flares lit within a several mile radius. In many cases, it is simply not possible to get to a location that has a lit flare before the 10 minute timer runs out. This defeats a main purpose of the app. The icons are also not intuitive, and the chat feature lags a lot.