Its something that’s been teased for a while and now trainers will finally be able to invite other friends to join them in Pokemon Go Raid Battles.
The new feature was added on July 15. Previously, when participating in Raid Battles remotely, trainers would be unable to play with friends who didn’t live closely.
This was understandably frustrating players as often they would spend more time waiting in Raid Battle lobbies than actually playing. Thankfully, with the addition of the new invite feature, this problem should be fixed for a lot of trainers.
When you join a Raid Battle there will be a ‘+’ button. Upon tapping this you’ll be given the chance to invite up to five friends.
As mentioned above, you can send invites to any Pokemon Go friends, regardless of their location. So, if a trainer is on the other side of the world you can still invite them! Additionally, there appears to be no friendship level requirements either.
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Invitations you receive will show in the Nearby screen, which can be accessed by clicking the ‘Nearby’ button in the bottom right-hand corner of the main Pokemon Go screen. Invitations can also be received via push notifications but you’ll need to make sure these are turned on.
Will Niantic reverse these changes?
The change is part of Niantic’s ongoing effort to make Pokemon Go more of a ‘play at home’ game. Their hand was obviously forced when the much documented (you may have heard about it) global health crisis hit several months ago.
It remains to be seen if the developers will reverse any of these changes when the world gets back to normal. By the time that happens though, trainers may have become so used to the changes in Pokemon Go that there will be demand for the game to remain them same. After all, it seems players are enjoying the increased freedom of being able to play from home.