‘Pokémon Go’ Tips: Players May Have Discovered How To Make PokeStops Using ‘Ingress’

Pokémon Go tips are still pouring in months after the game’s release, and this one should be exceptionally helpful to players in rural areas. While not totally confirmed, some feel they’ve found a way to create PokeStops using Niantic’s previous game, Ingress.

The phenomenon was first discovered by TheFarix of the Silph Road reddit community and has gained traction over the past 24 hours. When using Ingress, players will see a map with a bunch of green, blue or gray dots called portals. They’re essentially the Ingress equivalent to PokeStops in Pokémon Go. In your travels, you may come across some portals without a display image. Players can take a photo and send it to Niantic. If accepted, it will be used in the game.

To make a long story short, the source user submitted pictures for several pictureless portals back in August, and three out of five of them were approved by Niantic. Shortly thereafter, the approved portals also appeared as PokeStops in Pokémon Go. Logic would suggest that maybe Pokémon Go only creates stops out of portals when they have a picture.

This method isn’t fully proven, but many players of both games see it as a possible avenue that makes sense. At the very least, taking this extra step can only help considering the possibility of a PokeStop is better than none at all. It can also augment the widely known official way to submit requests for PokeStops too.

Upon logging into Ingress with an applicable account, you’ll see an assortment of portals in your area. Any of those could be pictureless, but the most likely culprits are “seed portals” automatically created by the app. These often include standard buildings like post offices, fire departments and libraries. Just tap on portals until you find one that says “add photo” where a picture would otherwise be. Tap the text, select the camera icon and you’ll be allowed to take a snapshot. The end results can then be sent directly to Niantic.

After that, it can take a few weeks for submissions to be reviewed. With any luck, the portals you encountered might become PokeStops in the near future.

Because Ingress and Pokémon Go share quite a bit of code, this discovery is far from the first one to imply a connection between the two apps. Shortly after Pokémon Go’s release, many tipsters suggested using Ingress and its portals as a way to gauge monster spawn points. Similarities like these make this unconfirmed tip seem a lot more viable.

Pokémon Go is available now on Android and iOS.

What do you think of this tip? Can Ingress really be used to make PokeStops? Tell us in the comments section!