Update
This hasn’t aged well. We apologise for an error in our reporting, but we were told this is not a bug.
Everyone makes mistakes, respect our writers, they are not responsible for any of this. https://t.co/VFztlWyfPo
— Pokémon GO Hub (@PokemonGOHubNet) June 27, 2023
Some Trainers may have experienced an increase to the current interaction radius. This was the unintended effect of a bug fix intended to improve the Pokémon encounter experience when your device is experiencing GPS drift. While we’re reverting this change, we will take your…
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) June 27, 2023
This is a bug. Not an actual feature. Niantic confirmed.
Original Article
In a rather surprising turn of events, it appears that with the new Pokémon GO update, version 0.275.0, the spawn radius has doubled from 40m, to 80m!
Typically spawn radius is 40m, whereas Pokéstop interaction radius was increased during the pandemic to 80m. Pokéstop radius was previously 40m, but was increased as a pandemic bonus, and after protests when it was changed back to 40m, it was then changed to 80m as a permanent increase. With the new update that is rolling out in the App stores, version 0.275.0, the spawn radius now also seems to be 80m.
For an example, I took this screenshot today when I loaded the game up whilst out running errands. At this spot I can usually only maybe see the Phantump spawn if I am lucky, but today I could see several spawns near the Pokéstops. I can’t spin the Pokéstops from that location, but I could click on the Pokémon to catch them! Crossing the road to the other side allowed the spawns by the furthest Pokéstop to spawn, and I could then interact with the first Pokéstop too. Exciting!
At the present time, we have no idea if this is a deliberate quality of life update, or an accidental glitch in the new version update. If it is a quality of life update that is going to remain active this is a huge win for the community! Particularly for rural trainers, or those who many not have any ‘home spawns’, this could be really game changing.
In the event this is something Niantic will fix in a future update, we’d recommend turning off automatic updates for now, and not updating the game past version 0.275.0 until there is a new forced update.
It doesn’t appear that GOPlus/auto catchers have been updated to cover the increased radius at present, with reports coming in that they still catch those at around 40m.
We really hope this is a permanent update to the game, and that it isn’t acknowledged as an error. What do you think of this change? Has it impacted on your local spawns?
