Are you still playing Pokemon Go? Well, congratulations you got it this far and this long. I have been passive about the game and just come out of my shell everytime there's something exciting like the one they did for Halloween. Anyway, that's not what this article is all about, I will be writing about an awesome way to request a PokeStop, and it works faster too.
This trick is especially for those Pokemon Go trainers that live in rural areas that do not have PokeStops in them but there are points of interest that would pass as a PokeStop. You might think that you can go ahead and contact Niantic about this but unfortunately, as of this writing, there is no way you can reach them regarding a PokeStop or Gym request. According to their support page, they are not currently accepting new PokeStop or Gym requests.
"Please note, we are currently not accepting submissions for new PokéStops or Gyms. If you are having trouble finding PokéStops or Gyms near you, please try visiting a local park or other interesting or historical locations in your community."
Don't give up just yet as there is a sort of hack to this via Ingress, now this may work or may not, so perform this at your own risk, as Niantic is very keen on banning users that they find violating against policies or something like that. Before we begin, it is important to note that you understand how Ingress works, if you do, you can skip some of the paragraphs below.
Ingress, the first game developed by Niantic, is the base architecture of Pokemon Go's map system. The game's theme is similar to Pokemon Go where you need to go to places and do stuff. The theme of Ingress is cyberpunk and the 'tasks' are mostly hacking computers and competing with rival teams to take over portals. Sounds like Pokemon Go, right?
Now, portals in Ingress are like PokeStops in Pokemon Go, they are linked to real-world landmarks. Niantic tag such places by locating geotagged images on Google and historical markers. At this point, it is important to note that user requests for Ingress will ultimately be a PokeStop since both apps use the same map database.
How to use Ingress to create PokeStops
As said earlier, this is not a proven method but if you have succeeded in requesting for a PokeStop via ingress then that would be awesome. Not to mention not a waste of time reading this article. Portals in Ingress have photos, like Pokestops. The first step would be finding a portal in Ingress (not Pokemon Go).
Next, if you find a photo-less Ingress portal near where you live or hangout, then go ahead and suggest a photo for it via Ingress. Detailed steps can be found here. After that, wait for a few days then check if the photo is uploaded. Once it is, it is most likely that it will become a PokeStop too.
If you can check out this Reddit post, the same steps above were done and it worked, according to TheFarix. This might not be considered solid proof but may pass as testimony. If you've tried this one and succeeded, you may use the comments section below to report to us. Keep gaming.
