Niantic Campfire icon
Niantic Campfire: Comprehensive Review of Niantic's Community Coordination App

by Niantic, Inc.

3.5
ANDROIDSocial
Niantic Campfire serves as a social coordination platform for augmented reality game players. The app enables community discovery, event planning, and real-world gameplay coordination across Niantic's game ecosystem.

Detailed Review

Niantic Campfire represents the developer's dedicated social platform for coordinating real-world gameplay across its augmented reality titles. Positioned as a companion application rather than a standalone game, Campfire addresses the community coordination needs that emerged organically through third-party platforms during Niantic's earlier game releases. The app serves as an official hub for connecting players across Pokémon GO, Ingress, Pikmin Bloom, and other Niantic properties. The application's core functionality centers around community discovery and event coordination. Users can locate nearby player communities through an interactive map interface, join group chats specific to their geographic area, and organize meetups for in-game activities. The platform integrates with Niantic's game accounts through the Niantic ID system, allowing seamless friend management across multiple titles. Recent updates have introduced raid filtering capabilities within specified radii, addressing earlier community feedback about difficulty locating nearby raid opportunities in Pokémon GO. User experience varies significantly based on geographic location and local community adoption. In densely populated areas with active player bases, the app functions as an effective coordination tool for raid groups and special events. The interface employs a clean, map-centric design with color-coded markers indicating different activity types. However, users in less populated regions report limited functionality due to sparse community presence. The direct messaging system enables communication between lucky friends for trade coordination, though some users note desire for additional search filters for locating specific player types or points of interest. User feedback indicates generally positive reception with specific feature requests. Ice berg's May 2025 review notes appreciation for added raid filtering and improved search functions, particularly for coordinating trades and major events. Conversely, Daniel Mayo's July 2025 review highlights confusion about event ticket applicability, suggesting potential communication gaps between game-specific features and Campfire's functionality. God Bloody's May 2025 review requests additional search capabilities for locating both PokéStops and nearby players, indicating areas for interface improvement. The application demonstrates strongest utility for organized player communities in urban environments, while facing limitations in regions with sparse player density. Its integration across Niantic's game portfolio provides value for multi-game players, though event-specific functionality requires clearer communication. Ongoing development shows responsiveness to community feedback, with raid filtering implementation addressing previously noted shortcomings. Ideal usage involves coordinating group activities for major events and maintaining connections across Niantic's gaming ecosystem.

Key Features

  • Interactive community map displays player groups and events within customizable radius for local activity discovery
  • Raid filtering system allows users to locate and coordinate participation in nearby Pokémon GO raid battles
  • Direct messaging system enables communication between lucky friends for arranging in-person trade meetings
  • Event scheduling functionality permits organized meetup planning for community events and gameplay sessions
  • Niantic ID integration manages friends and connections across multiple Niantic game titles simultaneously
  • Group chat features facilitate ongoing communication within local player communities for coordination

Why Users Love It

Enhanced raid coordination
Cross-game community building

Perfect for: Niantic game players seeking local community coordination

Screenshots

Niantic Campfire screenshot 1Niantic Campfire screenshot 2Niantic Campfire screenshot 3Niantic Campfire screenshot 4Niantic Campfire screenshot 5Niantic Campfire screenshot 6

User Reviews

Daniel Mayo
Jul 19, 2025

So the app is great if you want to find raids to participate in. Unfortunately it's useless when it comes to events. I bought a event ticket thinking I could join a raid. Unfortunately I wasted my money because you can't do that. They won't reimburse me for leaving that detail out either. So buyer beware of Pokémon Go and this app. It's good for certain things but terrible for most things. I recommend staying away from it and Pokémon Go. Niantic is only looking to steal your money.

Daniel Mayo
Jul 19, 2025

So the app is great if you want to find raids to participate in. Unfortunately it's useless when it comes to events. I bought a event ticket thinking I could join a raid. Unfortunately I wasted my money because you can't do that. They won't reimburse me for leaving that detail out either. So buyer beware of Pokémon Go and this app. It's good for certain things but terrible for most things. I recommend staying away from it and Pokémon Go. Niantic is only looking to steal your money.

Amaya Buffington
Jun 14, 2025

works really well all & is fairly simple I've had the best experience w/ it u can also try hosting multiple different campfires thru different devices and can accept them both in thru different devices too

Amaya Buffington
Jun 14, 2025

works really well all & is fairly simple I've had the best experience w/ it u can also try hosting multiple different campfires thru different devices and can accept them both in thru different devices too

Espeon Dk
Jul 2, 2025

Currently no problems, working really well and thankfully i've downloaded this app so i can find a group of raid easily, this app really helped me so good to be honest.

App Details

Developer

Niantic, Inc.

Platform

android

Rating

3.5

Last Updated

9/7/2025

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