Web-based version of Campfire is now available

Niantic released a web-based version of Campfire today, and it is available here: campfire.nianticlabs.com/discover. From there, you can see events around you, sign into your Campfire account, and RSVP to local meetings. The web version does not support any special in-game functionality right now, so don’t expect to see local Raids or Gyms at the moment.

The web version is much easier to navigate and pan around than the native version, and it makes finding local meetups a breeze. Unfortunately, like we said earlier, there is no support for any particular in-game feature.

The Campfire team did not share any updates on the future of this version of Campfire, but we decided to go ahead and see what’s under the hood… in a technical way. 

Campfire Web – a technical breakdown

The new Campfire Web map is built on the Ionic framework, which allows web developers to build mobile and web apps using the same set of technologies. Ionic is a very popular way to build cross platform applications, especially when the UI is simple and focused on lists and grids of elements.

Niantic’s mobile Campfire app is also built using Ionic, which should allow for some amount of code reuse between the two platforms. Code reuse is not an easy problem to solve, and the same code doesn’t “automagically” work on a mobile device and on a desktop device, but it is possible.

With that being said, we are not seeing any hidden code on the Campfire Web version that would cover local Raids, Routes, and groups. Maybe that functionality could be added in a future version, but as of today, it is not in there.

The rest of the tech stack is fairly standard affair for a Niantic app:

• NextJS is running the main website
• Google Maps is powering the map tiles and markers
• GraphQL is powering the data layer for reading event information

Here is an example network response for an event in Paris (some details redacted due to size and not being particularly interesting):

{
  "id": "3796727a-317e-4835-bc90-f56f99ddc028",
  "name": "Heure de raids Groudon",
  "address": "Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde, Paris, France",
  "coverPhotoUrl": "https://niantic-social-api.nianticlabs.com/images/b2cfa85feddedfd7",
  "details": "...",
  "eventTime": "2024-09-25T16:00:00Z",
  "eventEndTime": "2024-09-25T17:00:00Z",
  "rsvpStatus": "PENDING",
  "createdByCommunityAmbassador": true,
  "badgeGrants": [
    "MARKED_CA_EVENT"
  ],
  "topicId": "e.3796727a-317e-4835-bc90-f56f99ddc028",
  "commentCount": 0,
  "discordInterested": 0,
  "creator": {
    "id": "E:7XEUNAB3PCZPKKA2J6RO6MZ7MI74WGNANM3QRD3NVTZ4VFAJWA3A",
    "displayName": "TontonBatteuse",
    "avatarUrl": "https://niantic-social-api.nianticlabs.com/images/def4381365885f41",
    "badges": [
      {
        "badgeType": "PGO_COMMUNITY_AMBASSADOR",
        "alias": "PGO_COMMUNITY_AMBASSADOR"
      }
    ]
  },
  "club": {
    "id": "32ad8f6a-a0f9-404c-a9b6-ac22b04f1c7c",
    "name": "Chez Tonton & Nym",
    "avatarUrl": "https://niantic-social-api.nianticlabs.com/images/d34325e0ba11f731",
    "visibility": "public",
    "myPermissions": [],
    "badgeGrants": [
      "MARKED_CA_CLUB"
    ],
    "createdByCommunityAmbassador": true,
    "game": "PGO",
    "amIMember": true,
    "creator": {
      "id": "E:7XEUNAB3PCZPKKA2J6RO6MZ7MI74WGNANM3QRD3NVTZ4VFAJWA3A"
    }
  },
  "members": {
    "totalCount": 28,
    "edges": [
      ...
    ]
  },
  "isPasscodeRewardEligible": true,
  "commentsPreview": [],
  "isSubscribed": false,
  "campfireLiveEventId": "bb54c2d2-725d-44b1-9339-34d4582c257d",
  "campfireLiveEvent": {
    "eventName": "Groudon Raid hour ",
    "modalHeadingImageUrl": "https://social.nianticlabs.com/images/live_event/Raid%20Hour%402x.png",
    "id": "bb54c2d2-725d-44b1-9339-34d4582c257d",
    "checkInRadiusMeters": null
  },
  "location": "[2.3368682864717982, 48.84091777242615]",
  "mapObjectLocation": null,
  "passcode": "",
  "rsvpStatuses": [
    ...
  ],
  "game": "PGO",
  "clubId": "32ad8f6a-a0f9-404c-a9b6-ac22b04f1c7c",
  "hostLocationSharingSession": null,
  "checkedInMembersCount": 0,
  "visibility": "public"
}

We can glance a few things from this response:

• The system definitely supports different games and different types of events
• The data returned seems to be very similar to the data you would find in the mobile app

Given the shared nature of the system, we are cautiously optimistic that the web version of Campfire might add Raid support in the future.