Niantic Campfire Reviews

by Thisgirlyanya

Since the launch of Campfire it’s been a buggy up and down experience. It’s main purpose is served when you need to track down raids. Other than that, the UI is undoubtedly similar to Discord. The community I’m involved with has used Discord for years, and sees no reason to move to campfire other than the ambassador promo codes. The codes are clearly a desperate attempt to get people on their app but it’s too much of a hassle. Even if we decided to move over to campfire we would keep our planning on Discord. It’s just better. Now while campfire is very similar to Discord they’ve made their own changes which do not make the “Groups” customizable. It’s just sad that they have very little originality.

by TokTikBeSus

I’m getting so frustrated with how Niantic has chose to run their “party” systems in game. First it takes on average 5 minutes to find a mandatory group of 5 more people. Only for 3 of the people not to join, making you try and find a new group. The new group joins, and right before the timer hits 0 and starts the raid, the majority of the group leaves and the games horrible refresh system doesn’t tell you that people have left in time. Therefore it throws you into the raid, complete unprepared and not enough people to complete the raid. Which also results in you wasting a raid pass you spent your hard earned dollars on! So much fun!!!!

by Mynba 14 Was Best

Today was Mega Garchomp day and not once during the 3 hour event was i able to host a raid. You have a limited number of remote raids which worked just fine today, but when i try to use the limitless amount of in person raid invites it never worked. Not a single person was ever found to join my raid group. Towards the end of the day it didn't even give me the option to host period as it said i had to be on top of a gym which i was. I could’ve gotten so much more out of today but nope. And i wont even bother mentioning the semi regular connection failures when trying to join a remote raid on any other day. FIX YOUR APPS NIANTIC!

by HuskyRuss

UPDATE - It’s gotten worse. It now gets stuck at 4/6 players, then when it updates to 5/6 waiting for host 9/10 times it cancels. And when I host I don’t get notifications about it being full. And it doesn’t live update if I watch it either. I get notifications randomly, even when I have NianticCampfire closed and not looking for a raid - got a few at 3 am. Just use Discord.

At first it was great! Joined a few raids - linked with my PoGo account well. Then it was bug after bug - couldn’t access the map or list - couldn’t host - couldn’t search - stopped sending invites - constant crashes. Once bugs are fixed - it should be a 5 star though! Also need a reporting system for those who leave mid raid, or just setup raids to sit and do nothing. Only reporting options are for serious IRL issues.

by Phoenixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the last month now NianticCampfire ’s “team up” function, which is the root function of the whole thing, has not been working. Not only for me but for other pogo players as well. I will give a 5 star rating once it’s fixed. Even the “customer service” is a joke because the only responses you get from niantic on this is from automated chat bots. Maybe only a 4 star rating when it’s fixed. Depends on if the players that make NianticCampfire go round can get people to respond rather than the “cost effective” solution of chat bots.

by Thiccman47

Trying to host raids on NianticCampfire is terrible, even after long wait times to get trainers in, rarely does everyone join, and on the rare chance that everyone joins, when the raid lobby counter gets to 1 second, someone always leaves. I’ve had 7 people ready to go in a lobby, on the last second I even saw that all 7 were still in, but when I loaded into the battle, there were only 4 people with me, meaning 3 people left in the last second. NianticCampfire is full of trolls, and people that don’t know how to use it at all, and this ruins the raiding experience and literally wastes peoples money.

by Jpzilla89

So I’ve used campfire for a while in hopes it helps with the problem with raiding in Pokemon go, especially in light of Niantic’s infamous decision with remote raids. I have a lucky egg going after finishing one gym and it show there’s another close by that’s said to be hosting a raid. So I’ve drove on over with nearly 4 minutes left in my lucky egg thinking I’ll make it and complete the raid with additional XP. Turns out to my surprised, the location is on private property of sort and going in would be trespassing. But the salt to the wound, no gym with no raid at all. So I’ve wasted time, gas, and my lucky egg for nothing. The closest other gym was over 12 minutes away and I couldn’t be able to pause my lucky egg timer in time. So yeah don’t trust this garbage app completely as it will lie to you, waste your time gas and everything in between, and you could potentially trespass in private property all for a gym that doesn’t exist. Niantic if you’re listening, fix your garbage excuse of a community app, you own it to yourselves after milking your playerbase of its money and location data

by JAMIL1125

Literally cannot join any groups as soon I try just bugs out saying cannot join group at this time and then at that point it just glitches the screen to where I can’t do anything?? And I’ll be honest I do not think even without these mishaps anything would change. I remember talking to the group in my area saying if they wanted to do anything for a community day or global go fest or a shadow legendary raid and no one ever responded. I think discord and facebook groups work better. Failure of an app that could’ve had so many possibilities.

by Skipper1172

The raid processes in Campfire are extremely frustrating. There is no way to communicate with raid groups if a Campfire name doesn’t match with the in game name, there is no guarantee or consequence if a person in the lobby does or does not accept the friend request or the raid invite, and the entire process feels very half baked. I’ve hosted three raids in Campfire, and of the three I’ve only had one where everyone in the group joined the lobby and everyone’s name matched their in game name. There are much better remote raid apps out there.

by Steeziewonder

Zooming out is not an option, you have to be looking so close for a raid to actually show up in the UI (User Interface). This is an issue for rural players like myself because our gyms are very separated, it takes a lot of energy and zooming in and out to find the raid I want to go to. I know it’s not hard to implement the dynamic view at a more zoomed out aspect ratio. Y’all entirely redesigned NianticCampfire , but it doesn't matter because I can’t find a single Deino raid. Add a search function and a wider lens to view raids, then you have an app worth promoting.

by Atruss94

UPDATE - It’s gotten worse. It now gets stuck at 4/6 players, then when it updates to 5/6 waiting for host 9/10 times it cancels. And when I host I don’t get notifications about it being full. And it doesn’t live update if I watch it either. I get notifications randomly, even when I have NianticCampfire closed and not looking for a raid - got a few at 3 am. Just use Discord.

At first it was great! Joined a few raids - linked with my PoGo account well. Then it was bug after bug - couldn’t access the map or list - couldn’t host - couldn’t search - stopped sending invites - constant crashes. Once bugs are fixed - it should be a 5 star though! Also need a reporting system for those who leave mid raid, or just setup raids to sit and do nothing. Only reporting options are for serious IRL issues.

by SamWaltonSux

When you login it uses your Gmail account, but the Gmail account that is used for Pokémon Go and Ingress are different, so it does not work like it should. So sad this could have been as Awesome App if a player could use both accounts to login not just one. What a missed opportunity!!!

by Austin459

There’s no need for NianticCampfire to be separate from Pokémon go. All their other games keep dying. And they built the whole map into Pokémon go already just to school for people to install this. Then gated just the ability to communicate about where we want to go to force a second install that can’t be used without invasive location permissions. This whole app is built just to make corporate money bugs happy. There’s nothing useful to users here.

by Seeweevle

I do not know how you get an app so wrong that it makes people want to never touch the game again, but they found a way. Remote raids do not work, joining is completely broken, and there isn't even a functional chat system, just pre-made messages that don't communicate anything specific enough to get help from others. Came back to enjoy a community day with others after not playing for a long time, and it was such a mess that I uninstalled the game.

by MojoJojo2x

App is horrible with bugs and crashes, horrible communication set up for players. Ownership clearly doesn’t care about the players. Would recommend not getting this waste of an app.

by Jarred91

NianticCampfire is just another way for niantic to get location/tracking Data. Would have been useful worldwide about a year ago. Now everyone already uses other apps that actually work like discord or pokegenie.

by 7XCHSS

I used NianticCampfire for the first time on Sunday with no issues. Looks like it has been updated and now I’m not able to use it. It has my log in info but keeps telling me to install Pokémon Go (which I’ve had for a few years). I’m not sure why it’s not pairing the both apps. I’ve already uninstalled both and tried and nothing. This new update or change just messed everything up and I can’t use it.

by Headband Hajjissjdn

The recent update ruined all raids on the Niantic app. You no longer can get in a raid consistently. Since the update In fact I have not been able to get into a single raid on NianticCampfire it’s been about a week.

by DevonK97

They just keep updating it and ruin the fun to add people to be your friends on the game and Ban over stupid rules. If it’s me, it’s better off never use NianticCampfire at all. That’s basically what I’m going to do if your ban here’s a tip make a new Pokémon GO basically only way to use NianticCampfire again is making a new one and start over if you have a main account you can’t use it because you got banned from NianticCampfire

by SnailGary--

The newest update makes NianticCampfire completely not usable. All features says” download Pokémon go to use” while I already have it installed. Now I can’t even use the map. I’m a programmer myself and I would really lay off the guy who developed this button mapping crap

by OXcHiNoXo

The original threads to find raids and make no pokemon buddies all over the world was just fine. The update with this new system to find random raids near you is a mess and makes NianticCampfire almost useless other than to light campfires and do raids in your local area rather than hunting pokemon all over the globe.

by Sstrainer23

I use it for Pokémon go and you never get enough people and it won’t let you take less than a full party. When you join a host they never send the raids invite and you just waste time for nothing. If you want people to join you look for communities but NianticCampfire ain’t it right now

by ToxicPancakeKidd

I can’t figure out how to do anything after this new update and you basically took away remote raiding for most because I can’t even figure out how to join a group or anything I’m really sad about it bc I really wanted a heatran

by Metzden

Super clunky user experience for Pokémon go. When you want to join first you have to wait to even be shown a raid. Then when you are sometimes it shows what Pokémon the raid is for and sometimes not. If you decide to join, then you have to wait more time for others to join. Once there are enough players then you have to hope the host is still paying attention and accepting people. Once that happens then you have to hope you actually get sent an invite to join the raid. Then when you are invited you hope that everyone else joins and or sometimes even though I was invited I can’t join. It’s a great concept, but right now it is just a bad user experience.

by Zimmdastic

Don’t get me wrong campfire is a great idea. Issue is it came out 7 years after launch so we all formed our own communities or use other raid hosting apps. Meaning that the community is still dispersed over multiple apps and you typically still need to have messenger, discord, poke genie and campfire to raid in your surrounding areas.

My other critique is as an App campfire is clunky and isn’t very helpful. For example I get a ton of app notifications from my friends, I click on them, brings me to update NianticCampfire , after updating I open NianticCampfire then can’t find the messages lol. It’s just like if you want to make this a social app make the feed a bit easier, and if you want the raid community back give some incentive so we are using 4-5 mostly 3rd party apps to coordinate in game raids. 2 stars as I know they can and will do better but for now it’s just kind of annoying lol

by Chocolatestarfishhotdogwater

If you want to be left by yourself to fight a raid, or finally get a group to fight only to get kicked out because of an “error” then this is great. But if you are actually trying to win raids and catch ‘em all, NianticCampfire has so many glitches. You’re better off finding a park with other players to play in person than use this. During Pokémon go fest it glitched and I was left to fight raids completely alone 6 times. Twice after that, it glitched gave me an error message and would not allow me to enter the raid. I have wasted too many remote raid passes and max revives because of this.

by Remoteraidlimitstinks

Although difficult to navigate NianticCampfire fills a void that players have been waiting years for. An actual way to communicate with other players. Or at least it did until recently. The general chat was a way to connect for raids and removing it makes Campfire that much less useful. And don’t bother with the team up button. Supposedly it randomly connects players with an open raid. I don’t want a random raid and if it’s a Pokémon I don’t want, there goes a $2 raid pass just for looking at it. I don’t know personally however, because after multiple attempts I’m still waiting… The raid map and chat feature are useful, if years too late. With raids being a money maker and one of the huge draws of the game, the recent Campfire nerf is confusing and unpopular to say the least.

by Thomas3737

I like the idea of what NianticCampfire is trying to be, but there are some major flaws. The most frustrating one is how difficult it is to find a specific type of raid on the map. It has to be a specific distance to see where and what the raids are, but it is way too zoomed in to even be optimal. An easy way to fix this would either be adding a filter. Being able to choose what difficulty of a raid you want and only see those selected ones would completely fix the issue right away. You could even go a step further and have a list pop up showing the raids from closest to furthest and being able to tap on it and it taking you to where it is on the map.

by Spin527

User interface is confusing to navigate and could use a more simplified method of switching between games and chats. From my observation established users are signing up but not engaging very much and sticking with whatever former method they have been using such as messenger and Telegram. This is leaving the newer users and players who are giving NianticCampfire a shot with unremarkable results. The developers could benefit from considering user feedback and needs to implement features which make NianticCampfire more useful for it’s players.

by Vintage MySpacer

Y’all forgot to add navigation buttons to get back to either the previous screen or the home screen when you’re looking at a group. I gotta close NianticCampfire then reopen it to get back home. Glaring oversight if you ask me.

Additionally, it’d be nice to have a button to check our notifications. I’ve had a notif badge on NianticCampfire icon for ages and I have no idea what the notifs are from.

Otherwise, I dig NianticCampfire’s potential. I’ve been waiting since 2016 for something like this. 🙃

by Crazy Fitbit Momma;)

Hi, I put 3 stars because I’m getting annoyed that whenever I go from Pokémon Go app, and click to check out Campfire app it sends me directly to Apple app, but on my sons phone sends directly from Pokémon Go app straight to Campfire app!!! Is there a way for me to switch it out where I’m just going from 1 app to the other???
Also. When I try to share a photo it does the same thing and never allows me to share the photo!! Please help with this!
I’m new to this game and I’m really enjoying it, except for the issues I mentioned above!
Thank you;)

by Dragonplaysa

The raiding is a little tricky to navigate by that I should say bad . For 1 if you use the random join up feature it takes for ever to get in and there is 2 queues it’s just really awful but if he hears the groups with rays, people will tell you their codes and you can read that way so so great because you can see the entire maps and where what’s located Besides that though NianticCampfire is really hard to navigate.

by Vvan8

App is glitchy and barely functional but I guess it does the job. There should be a feature added where you can filter through tier raids or search a specific raid boss by search bar instead of endlessly swiping through the map. That would be helpful for people who are hunting a specific boss.

Also campfire requiring you to zoom in really close to see ongoing raids is ridiculous. At least make it where you can zoom out a bit more within a certain radius. Why can I only see raids 2-3 streets over? If I’m doing drive-by raids or raid hour I want a bigger radius.

by Hchuijfx

So yesterday was lucario raid day I had no remote raid passes so I physically went to a raid up close and I opened my campfire to host and it said there was a bunch of people online but nobody join and it said people were in the queue to joins random raid and it took forever for people to load in a raid even tho I was hosting one so i simply got no one to join my raid with no people to battle and because of that I got to battle 4-5 times and got no shinys except for that pinecone witch im grateful for 🙏

by Lopesta

I think this is a good especially for me as there isn’t to many local raids i can join so remote raiding is my main use of this..with that being said i wish NianticCampfire can somehow allow the person to pick which type of raid Pokémon they want to go after i.e. select which Pokémon the person wants to raid for instead of being randomly selected into one where i might now want that certain Pokémon

by JoleneYvonne

NianticCampfire isn’t bad, but the small glitches make it more of a headache to use. Hosting raids only works half of the time, and as a local group “founder” or whatever it’s called, it is good to be able to have more friends in my area to join the Shadow Raids and others that can’t be done by remote. It would be cool to expand it so groups can have world wide members and participate in raids everywhere like PokeRaid or LeekDuck. Overall, the concept is awesome, and if the glitches are worked out with hosting raids, I’d use NianticCampfire for more than community day meet ups.

by Sarah1631

It’s a great idea for an app. It’s not executed as well as it should be. Finding people to raid with is cool but it’s only locally unless you find friends elsewhere and ask them to send you invites to raids. But that’s if they’re playing and if they get your message even. It’s a great idea but needs to be cleaned up. More organization in NianticCampfire , better chat and group chat usage and would be nice to expand playability when raiding.

by I Couldnt Get A Nickname Lol

It’s telling me to link my account to it,

But I can’t link my Apple to go. Every time I try it says something around the lines of ‘you cannot link Apple to Pokémon go’ or something like that. And if I can’t link it then I can’t use campfire even tho it’s in my news. So if you can tell me why it’s not working then hopefully I can download it but for now it’s just staying deleted.

by No Names8433

So overall i like NianticCampfire my only issue has been with hosting raids, I've hosted 4. 2 worked 2 did not work. My first try at the raid just when i got all the plays and was supposed to join the chat to invite everyone to the rsid I kept getting a error and couldn’t do it, second one went great got the players, got into the chat, it sent out a thing in chat for everyone one to click to get in the raid went great caught Moltres. Third raid did everything the second did but for some reason it told me to invite all the players to the raid manually, by the time i was able to i had to back out cause i didn’t get it done in time, fourth time worked. Overall i like NianticCampfire but hopeful it will be like the second time around moving forward.

by Hauntedjpeg

The latest we update with raid queues is a step in the right direction but the match making system needs improvements. The matchmaking process isn’t clear on what is happening. Over the past couple days I’ve only been able to host/join a raid on about 20% of my attempts

by MalrikTheMad

The concept here is good but the program lacks the ability to actually get me other players to player with. To many times I tried to host and found myself waiting for long periods of time for nothing or it won’t let me host the raid at all after walking down to some place.

by RedNuii

Literally why make another app, just integrate this into Pokémon go. It feels clunky having to switch back and forth between the two. The idea is good and is honestly years overdue but please just integrate into the actual game.

by SheRman1733838

In pokemon go it said campfire is global now but it is not allowed in Vietnam please fix this

by Hi 228448833

It tells me to download Pokémon go but I already have Pokémon go.

by OZZY1413

Living out in the middle of nowhere having one pokéstop and one gym make playing the game harder especially for raids but being able to join people near or far make NianticCampfire so good if only they didn’t limit you to only 5 remote raids a day. I guess hosting a raid is the only way you could play with other people after you hit the limit.

by Okummthz

NianticCampfire is a great way to connect with your local community, and is great for community days and big events aswell! I like the map that can show you raids, and it’s awesome that they updated it to show you routes too! One thing though, the raiding group section doesn’t work though, whenever I try to host a raid or join one it just never works and I have to go to pokeraid or something to raid and invite people.

Overall helped me find a great community around me and my future community days will be great! 🌟4.5/5

by Unspeakable Beast

This is a great app! Don’t get me wrong, this is a really good app. I’ve been using it for a few months and I’ve met really great people and even made some new Pokemon Go friends on here!
But I’ve had a few deceptive moments on NianticCampfire. Like a 16 year old like me that has no license to drive, I have to walk or bike to meet up with people to join raids. You gotta be careful who you meet up with because you never know what can happen. I’ve had some bad experiences on NianticCampfire which I’m not going to say for obvious reasons.
All I want to say is if you’re an underage player, please stay safe!

by Geocachekid

I love NianticCampfire. It made Pokémon go raids so much easier for me. I just got monster hunter now and it’s a good game. Something to add to campfire to make it easier for people who don’t go places often in monster hunter now is to make it so you can invite people to a battle from campfire. If you do that I’ll surely make my rating a five.

by Extremely Good Gamer

NianticCampfire functions well enough to do as it says it can do. I don’t like the fact that you have to find people locally when you find a group???? The reason I can’t raid is because there is no one locally to raid. Also there are some bugs when typing for me, it will randomly disappear. Honestly I think NianticCampfire is sorta underrated, but there could be improvement.

by Galaxy4th

It needed a lot of work at first but with this new update, it is a blessing and you guys have made it a lot easier and faster and more convenient. Good job!

by Pokepro90

after downloading the newest update i opens campfire and could not get the map opened.
when i try to use the team up feature it tells me to download pokémon go but i already have it on the same device and when i hit the button to download pokémon go it opens pogo but change’s nothing in campfire.
this is a major issue that needs fixed.

by PokéMaster75

This is a smart app for things like raid coordination and hundo spawns, but it works a little bit slow. I do like how everything is incorporated in one app though. The flare feature is nice as well.

by JollyJoseph

I love using Campfire! Saves me so much time and gas as most Pokémon Go gyms are not in easy walking distance from home. I can locate raids and plan trips to do multiple raids in a single trip. Can also communicate with other trainers about when to meet to do raids that require more participants. Nice job Niantic.

by Pikapi_zc

NianticCampfire provides chat room for any specific raid which could let people gather at a target time and also provide small groups so that we could share more info with each other. Furthermore, it migrates with the map great which allows me directly drive to that gym! Save a lot of time!

by Jakepotter96

I love NianticCampfire and I think people don’t use it enough. I had almost no one to play with in my local area other than a good friend. I found campfire and started a group for where we play. Since then it’s slowly gained more and more members now sitting at 600+ members! We’ve built an active community, super easy to get raids done now all you gotta do is ask for some help from people that are in the area! Amazing features where you can see gyms and eggs but I would say that it would be nice if there was an option to see pokestops too for people who are maybe trying to scope out a new place to play and looking for a good spot with lots of stops. Overall really good and you should download it.

by JakeK21

The use of NianticCampfire may just be the turning point for the game. The ability to connect with nearby trainers, be a part of a club, and more needs invested into more. Plus remove all those other games and focus on making this for Pokémon Go (:

Anyways I would like to see more unique features and in game features to connect these two games. Such as group badges on profile, additional items for raiding with campfire, & group levels. I think it’ll help grow communities

by Amelia V

NianticCampfire is really useful to find raids nearby and messaging other players. I use campfire mostly for Pokémon Go and Peridot. I’m excited for the new update with “Team Up” with other players and future updates! Keep up the awesome work Niantic 😄

by Joemeyer

Being able to find which gyms have eggs or bosses to fight is so very useful. I've also used the chat feature to rendezvous with other players to take down a boss. it mostly works well. Sometimes I have to restart NianticCampfire to see the menu.

by Arielstarsweeper

I’ve been playing Pokemon GO on and off since it’s release in 2016. I learned of NianticCampfire a couple weeks ago in an in-game promotion. I read the reviews and was initially wary since people said it’s buggy and broken but I figured I’d try it out myself. Here is what I’ve found: 1. I had no issues linking my account and creating a niantic profile. 2. So far the few bugs I’ve experienced have been minor and fixed with refreshing NianticCampfire . 3. NianticCampfire is great for finding local groups and making friends from across the world for those sweet, sweet scatterbug badges. I live in a rural area and was surprised to find already established groups for areas near me. Yes, it’s a lot like discord. 4. If you have remote raid passes, there is an option to join a random raid group in-app,. I’ve done it a few times and had no issues with it. It never took more than 2 minutes for a complete party to gather. 5. If you don’t have remote raid passes, you can host a raid in-app and find random players to join you. I’ve done this several times and found it to be fairly easy. Again it never took more than a couple minutes to gather a party. I suspect the date and time of day may affect this though, I generally raid in the evenings. To conclude, I think this a good app. It seems like the devs have worked through a lot of the kinks. I would recommend this to beginners and veterans alike.

by Tyler Seevers

You’re at a severe disadvantage if you don’t have this. Amazing for hosting raids to get a big team for any raid.