Pokemon Go update brings back ‘Nearby’ tracker – but only for some users

The new release also resurrects the battery saving mode and adds new warnings to stop people putting themselves in danger

People join the Hong Kong's first Pokemon Go tram party organized by 'Sam the Local', on July 30, 2016 in Hong Kong (Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images)

A new update to Pokemon Go fixes some of the problems that fans said have broken the game.

Since the game received its first major update last month, users have complained that there is now no way of finding Pokemon and that the game has become far less fun. But developers Niantic appear to be looking to fix those problems with a new update, which has been released today.

On the face of it, the update is relatively boring: it brings a new dialogue that tells people not to play when they’re driving, if the phone detects that they’re movingly quickly; fixes bugs with throwing Pokeballs; makes it so that people can only change their nickname once; and brings back the battery saver mode on iOS, after it has been fixed.

But it is a secret change hidden in the update, which is only showing for some users, that has really excited Pokemon Go trainers.

The company is testing a new “Sightings” feature that is meant to make it easier to find creatures. That tool will replace the “Nearby” one, which was recently removed from the game – and, alongside Niantic’s decision to cut off third-party Pokemon-finding apps, means that there’s no way left to find Pokemon beyond walking around and hoping to stumble into them.

In its new form, the Sightings feature shows a list of nearby Pokemon against pictures of Pokestops that they’re near.

When users click on a specific Pokemon, they’ll see the map zoom out so that it can show where they are.

For people that don’t have the new Nearby system, the Sightings tool will just show nearby Pokemon. Unlike the old system, it doesn’t attempt to show how close they are – which the old one couldn’t do anyway, because it was broken – but will show only Pokemon that are near enough to go and catch.

The new system makes some other changes in comparison with its previous version. It shows fewer monsters, but it also gets rid of the duplicate creatures – usually common ones like Rattata. And it seems to update more quickly, providing extra help for people who are travelling quickly, for instance.

It doesn’t seem that the new feature will necessarily last, since Niantic said in its notes that “you may seem some variation in the nearby Pokemon UI”.