Ever since, players have been relying on third-party tracking tools for their Pokemon GO journey. This is most especially when Niantic's very own system didn't work properly. Unfortunately, these tools must come to an end. The Pokemon Company itself has decided to do so.
According to Mic, the aforementioned Pokemon GO company released a couple of cease-and-desist letters. These were given to the developers of the third-party tracking tools, namely Pokemap and PokeAlert. Both of these are reportedly shutting down and/or will no longer provide service to the community.
In the letters, it states that the said Pokemon GO tracking tools have utilized copyright images. The latter were asked to be removed by The Pokemon Company. Moreover, the creators were warned about their utilization of data scrapping. This basically refers to information directly acquired from the game's official servers, only with no permission.
The Pokemap developer announced that their Pokemon GO license was already revoked, following the cease-and-desist letter they received. The company stated that whenever they access Niantic's server or "create a program that others can run," it always results to accessing the studio's servers unauthorized. Hence, as per the announcement, the cease-and-desist letter will be complied.
The very unfortunate thing about this is the fact that these third-party tracking tools are significant to Pokemon GO players. It helps players understand and/or know the exact location of a certain Pokemon. It basically gives them navigation, something that Niantic fails to offer.
Take for example, PokeVision -- a tool that was loved by most Pokemon GO players back then. Although it won't necessarily give players an idea of which direction to take, it somehow helps players know the distance between a Pokemon and them. Unfortunately, it was shut down after Niantic decided to give the limited access to third-party services. It's worth noting that this decision followed the closure of the game's official tracking system, resulting to players' dissatisfaction.
