How does Go Radar stack up against other Pokemon GO tracker apps?
If it seems like there's a new Pokemon GO app to help you track and locate Pokemon every day, that's because it's pretty close to the truth. Niantic and Nintendo may have carved themselves out a big chunk of the mobile gaming industry, but the cottage industry that has developed alongside it has been even more fascinating to watch.
Go Radar is the latest of these apps to surge up the App Store charts, using crowdsourced, real time info to help gamers locate Pokemon. How does it compare to previous apps of the same type? We gave it a spin while on our nightly Pokewalk (yes, we're pretty sure that will be an official word soon if it isn't already) to find out.
Map basics
Stop us if you've heard this before, which you very well might have. Go Radar uses widely available data to show your present location as a blue dot on a map which you can pinch to zoom in or out, slide around, and generally manipulate in any way that you'd expect. A lighter blue shaded area shows the range in which Pokemon should pop into your vicinity to confront.
Tapping the pin icon in the lower right corner allows you to recenter the map and zoom in or out to its default distance. It's easy to use and very similar to other competing apps.
How it shows Pokemon
Pokemon that users report appear as small circles on the map, color-coded by type, with the silhouette of that particular pocket monster inside. Tapping on the circle gives you a small pop-up with the name and an approximate time the Pokemon will disappear.
One downside to Go Radar is that it doesn't make it clear how often it refreshes its information. You'll also find that if you zoom in and out, you'll find more Pokemon appear and disappear at times. Those aren't deal-breaking quirks by any means, but they're worth mentioning.
Where Go Radar stands out
Tapping on the gear icon in the upper right corner brings up a 'Settings' menu that opens up a host of options that other Pokemon GO tracking apps simply don't have. Several choices for notifications are definitely welcome, as are the abilities to show distance to Pokemon or timers that count down until they vanish.
Best of all, though, is that Go Radar can show Pokestops and Gyms. Whether any actually show up on your map obviously depends on whether players want to report them too -- and in our limited experience, that doesn't seem to be happening much -- but just the thought that someone has finally combined these important data points into one app is great.
The verdict
Though there's the necessary caution that any Pokemon GO unofficial companion app that relies on crowdsourcing will only be as good as its user base in your area, Go Radar looks to have more features that any similar app to come before it, and it's got an excellent chance to become your go-to partner for catching 'em all.