Recently, Pokemon Go players have been dealing with the dreading “three footprints” bug, which has totally incapacitated tracking how close a nearby Pokemon is. However, a Redditor has figured out a way to use Google Maps and a backdoor access to Pokemon Go‘s data to show the location of every nearby Pokemon in the game.
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Ahmed Almutawa, who goes by the name waishda on Reddit, developed the method after reading other Redditor’s work on /r/pokemongodev, a subreddit dedicated to tinkering with Pokemon Go‘s gamedata and coming up with useful side programs. Almutawa developed a browser add-on that can access Pokemon Go‘s servers via a Pokemon Trainers Club account and pull up current information on where Pokemon are lurking anywhere on the map.
If you want to use the add-on, you need some functional knowledge of Python coding or pay very close attention to these instructions. Since the add-on relies on Pokemon Go‘s servers, the add-on often doesn’t work during peak hours.Almutawa also noted to the Verge that Niantic could shut down his program at any time since it’s functionally a hack of the game.However, he plans to continue to develop his program as long as he’s able, with plans to making the program more functional for the non-technically inclined user.
It’s likely this map program is only a short term fix, but it could help many trainers out instead of fruitlessly wandering their neighborhood for Pokemon that never appear.
Pokemon Go is out for the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe.
