Pokémon GO tips and tricks are still piling on even months after the game's official release, and this specific one should be exceptionally helpful to rural area players. Though not completely confirmed, some have claimed that they have found a way to create Poke Stops using Niantic's previous game, Ingress.
About this phenomenon
The trend 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 be able to see a map with a bunch of blue, green, or gray dots which are called portals. They're essentially the Ingress equivalent to Poke Stops in Pokémon GO. During your travels, you will come across some portals without a display image. Players can take photos and send it to Niantic. If accepted, it will be officially used in the game.
How the two games relate
Long story short, the source user submitted some pictures for several picture-less portals back in August, having three out of five of them completely approved by Niantic. Shortly thereafter, these approved portals have also appeared as Poke Stops in Pokémon GO. The theory would suggest that maybe Pokémon GO will only create stops out of these portals when they have a picture.
Theory is very possible despite not being proven yet
This theory isn't fully proven, but a lot of players of both these games see it as a possible avenue that would definitely make sense. At the very least, taking this extra step can only help considering the possibility of a Poke Stop is better than none. It can also develop the widely known official way to submit requests for Poke Stops, too.
How to make your very own Poke Stop through Ingress
When logging into Ingress with an applicable account, you will see a wide selection of portals within your area. Any of those could be picture-less, but the most likely suspects are 'seed portals' automatically created by the app itself. These would often include some standard buildings like fire, departments, post offices, and libraries. Just tap on these portals until you find the one that says 'add photo' where a picture would otherwise be displayed. You can then tap onto the text, select the camera icon and you will be allowed to take a snapshot. The final photo will then be sent directly to Niantic. After that, keep in mind that it would take a few weeks for submissions to be reviewed. With any luck, the portals you have encountered might become Poke Stops in the near future.
Pokémon GO and Ingress go hand-in-hand
Because Pokémon GO and Ingress actually share quite a bit of code, this discovery is far away from the first one to imply a connection between the two apps. Shortly after Pokémon GO's release, many sources have suggested using Ingress and its portals as a way to determine monster spawn points. These kinds of similarities will make this unconfirmed tip seem a lot more viable. Pokémon Go is now available now on Android and iOS.
