The latest Pokemon GO patch replaced the Nearby tracking tool with a new tool called Sightings. Here is how to use it to attempt to find the Pokemon near you.

Pokemon GOgot off to an amazing start, but some broken features and a lot of silence from the developers at Niantic left the community unsure about the future of the game. The company eventually released a statement about the removal of the step-based tracking tool, but many fans thought it was too little too late. A new Pokemon GO patch makes some major improvements to the Nearby tool, and renames it the Sightings tool, and attempts to get back on the good side of the community.

The new tool replaces the old one, two, or three prints with grass behind Pokemon that are nearby. Unfortunately, there still isn't a way to track Pokemon the way that players could during the game's first two weeks. That said, this patch is still an improvement over the three step bug or the changes that replaced them.

There are two major changes that arrive with this update. The first is that the Nearby/Sightings list now accurately represents the Pokemon that are near the player. Sightings apparently are limited to 200 meters (or 700 feet). For the last few weeks, the Nearby tool was completely unreliable and there was no way to know if the Pokemon were actually there or not. It is now safe to trust the tool. The map refreshes roughly every 10 seconds and Pokemon that have despawned will be removed from the list.

The other major change is that Pokemon are now grouped together. That means that if there are four Weedles nearby, the group will only take up one spot on the nine space grid. This also means that the Pokemon in the top left corner is not necessarily the closest Pokemon to the player. For now, there is no way to know which Pokemon are closest.

This is certainly not a longterm replacement for the original tracking tool, but the new Sightings option is a step in the right direction. We'll keep an eye on the feature over the next few weeks and update as it is improved.

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Pokemon GO is currently available in select regions for iOS and Android devices.