The people’s voices have been heard. Niantic has announced a reversion of their previous plan to undo the extended range for PokéStops.

Back during the start of the pandemic, Niantic introduces a number of changes to Pokémon GO to further encourage folks to keep playing. One of these changes included doubling the distance needed to interact with PokéStops and Gyms (totaling to 80 meters). The idea was to allow for easier social distancing while playing.

Recently, Niantic announced an intention to revert this distance back to pre-pandemic length. But the community didn’t like this idea. Folks cried out and petitioned for them to cancel this plan. This included things like social media #HearUsNiantic campaigns.

Initially, the developers responded to this by declaring an internal study to see if they should. And now, they seem to have found an answer: they will. According to a couple of tweets posted recently, Niantic will no longer be changing the distance to the pre-pandemic 40 m, and instead will keep it at 80 m. 

“Trainers – we’re looking forward to sharing our plans as a result of the task force on September 1, but one thing does not have to wait! From now on, 80 meters will be the base interaction radius for PokéStops and Gyms globally.

Thank you to everyone who made your voices heard. We’ve heard you and understand that this has been a welcome benefit to many players. We’ll share more next week.”

When you’re one of the biggest mobile game developers of the decade, it’s easy to become comfortable in your position and ignore the feelings of your community. We appreciate them both taking the time to hear our concerns, but still making an internal effort to make sure it’s the right decision to make. This will definitely make playing the game less of a hassle for me and many others.