Let's Go Meet New and Old Friends

Since it was introduced, the feature of friends in Pokémon Go has brought interactions to a different level. It has helped to make them more meaningful and more beneficial for those who are involved. Yet, as with real life in general, friends come and go; for Pokémon Go, this is especially truer as not everyone may have enough time to devote to play or is located in the same area. Recently, though, two new features have been introduced that should help for both incoming new friends and persistent old friends alike.

With so many Trainers who play Pokémon Go, it may become difficult to deal with those who have established friendly relations, especially when one is at or near the limit of 200. The first new feature should be a blessing for the situation: the limit has now been raised to 400, after a very long wait. This comes with a friendship update that synchronizes all friends across all Niantic games: if they play the others, they'll be friends in those games as well, and in fact, the sync update was first delivered before the update that lets more friends be added freely. The increased limit should bode well for those who manage multiple communities, especially those that are separated by great distances, as well as those who link up with very far away Trainers for the purpose of remote raids or even remote battling as currently necessitated by the Silph Arena, for which any or all of these require ample friend slots. The increased limit should be more than ample for that, provided that one does not immediately fill up the new space in the friend list with new friends, necessary or otherwise.

For older friends (in the sense of Trainers both before and after the friend list was introduced) as well as complete newcomers, they ought to benefit from the next feature. That would be a referral program to aid one another along the journey. Trainers who are active may now possess a referral code that can be given to inactive but returning Trainers (after at least 90 days of inactivity) or to new Trainers starting their journey. The two Trainers can then complete tasks similar to Research that are in sync with each other, and these tasks have many nifty rewards for both of them. They will have to play smart, of course, but the rewards should be the greatest incentive. This feature had been tested in Australia prior to its global debut, and the fact that the feature was accepted rather rapidly is and should be a testament to its extreme utility. It also has an achievement medal attached to it, which demands observation of the progression of this feature.

Today, friends have become especially important in Pokémon Go due to things that are conferred by these relationships. The two new features above can be construed to be reflective of this fact, with the friend limit being greatly increased and a referral program aiding upstarting or restarting Trainers. The features should assure many more interactions in the future and certainly bring the Trainers involved to even higher levels in their Pokémon Go journey wherever it takes them.

One year ago: Leaping off Ledges

Two years ago: Scat-Poké-Land

Three years ago: Let's Go Research

Four years ago: Caravansary