Campfire was originally announced in May and has been in the testing phase with Ingress players for the past few months. The initial release will be available to select groups of Pokemon Go players throughout the summer, according to the company.
The core of Campfire is a map that includes information about in-game events and activities, which in theory makes it easy to find people to play with or arrange get-togethers with friends. The app includes a group and a private messaging tool for your in-game friends. For Pokemon Go, for example, you can send a raid location to a friend to make it easier to get together. You can also do things like add a “glow” to a location to encourage nearby players to come over if something interesting happens.
The idea of a social network may seem superfluous with the abundance of messaging apps that already exist, but it makes some sense considering the number of games the company is working on. In addition to Pokémon Go and Ingress, Niantic also has a game of Pikmin Bloom, along with games in development such as virtual pet Slim Period and the just-announced basketball game All the World, according to The Verge’s website.