Trainers, a significant update was made to the Today Tab view in Pokémon GO, making this frequently used screen better looking, more organised, and way more useful than before. The Today View update was previously only accessible to some Trainers, but a worldwide release happened earlier this week, making it available to everyone.
The newly updated Today View has the following sections:
- Your active Field Research tasks, and an overview of your daily Research Breakthrough progress
- A “Happening Now” section that shows currently active Events and Seasons, their end dates and times. Clicking on an event will bring up it’s bonuses, making this a super convenient way to refresh your memory
- A “Daily Activities” section that shows how much PokéCoins you earned today, your Gym defenders, the status of your Daily Streaks, and which Pokémon are entered in which Showcase
Here’s how the new UI looks like:
What’s new
The new UI is less cluttered and more organised than it was previously, and it makes it very easy to see which Pokémon are in Showcases. Previously, that information was hidden away on the Events tab, and you had to scroll miles to get to it.
What we particularly like is the addition of the “Happening Now” section. It always felt strange to exit Pokémon GO and look up that information on a third party website, and Niantic finally fixed that.
The handy bonuses overview on Current Events is great as well, but one has to ask the question – why is this not also on the Events tab? It is called Current Events but it is not there, which is very strange.
Consequently, other screens have been cleaned up as well. Gone is the messy, miles long scroll on the Events section, but as with every redesign, there are some folks who don’t like it.
Not everyone likes the new UI
One notable criticism was that “Happening Now” section under Today tab should be under Events tab with “Upcoming Events” section, which semantically does make sense. Another point of criticism was that the Events tab now feels useless, as it doesn’t list the rest of current month’s events (see our Pokémon GO January 2024 Event Guide for that).
Although we agree with these two points, our biggest issue is that the Events tab is now focused on GBL Timed Research, the current event Timed Research, and that’s about it. It feels messy and disorganised, and doesn’t really tell the story of the current events taking place.
We wish Niantic would spend some more design resources on this screen as well, and create a well organised UI, where information about each event that is currently running would be grouped together.
Right now, the GO Battle Week bonuses are on the Today tab, and the Timed Research is on the Events tab. Why are the bonuses not on both tabs, is beyond us. Smells like some misinterpreted User Research experiment, reductive to it’s soulless Excel-sheet core.
In any case, this redesign is a net positive for the players, but it does have a lot of room to improve.
Looking for more?
Read our comprehensive guide to Tags and organising your Pokémon Storage. Phrixu’s excellent piece will help you do Spring cleaning like you’re a Pokémon superstar. Do check it out 👉 GO Hub Guide to Tags and Organisation
