First off it’s great this app finally exists however they really should do a better job with it. The UI navigation at the bottom is incredibly difficult to use. In the preset messages in the raid “chat” lobby they have the “sending invites” directly next to “sorry I’m leaving” and I hit that once and everyone left my raid. I get notifications all the time of people posting things in the feed, but when I click on them, they never show up. I’ve hosted raids on this app and sometimes the right time will completely time out. It only gives you one minute to accept, which is a little ridiculous because if you’re bored and fighting a grunt, you have to exit out of that. I do like how it automatically accepts friend request for raids. I just wish they did a revise of the whole app.

I was introduced to this app by attending a PokemonGo Fest back in 2023. I do appreciate having a messaging platform to connect others without having the need to give out my other personal information. It seems it has some aspects of the layout of Discord, like the groups. When I leave groups, there’s no way to remove them from my lists. I had to uninstall, restart device, and reinstall the app to remove them. Finding raids with others through the app is definitely more miss than hits. I chose the option to join a raid, it automatically puts me in one, but no option to choose whether it is one I want to join and no telling what pokemon I’m raiding for. Joining is easier than hosting. When I try to host, it shows how many in the queue, but it takes a long time waiting for others. I believe a notification should be sent to others in the area as an option to in choosing to raid it. Not sure if it waits until I have the max amount of participants or I can choose to start. I never get the whole group of 5 extra players. Not sure if it’s possible, but I noticed that players can have this option to join or RSVP through the PoGo app already. Wish this worked though if they want this app to work.

I downloaded campfire when I first heard about it years ago….I couldn’t access the app because the release done by the development team was a complete dumpster fire. I wasn’t able to access it for about a year. When I finally was able to access it, I created an account and used it regularly for about 6 months. At that point I would’ve given 3.5/5 stars as a rating……until my Pokemon Go account was logged out automatically because I didn’t play for a few months. Upon trying to log back into Pokemon Go I realized I had forgotten my password. I had this happen twice before over the years and I’ve always been able to navigate a simple password reset with no issue…but Campfire? My god. The app encourages you to link it to other accounts you have (google, Apple, facebook etc) That is where everything fell apart. I linked it to my Facebook and Apple account and ever since doing so the campfire app doesn’t recognize my pokemon go account as existing so I can’t use if for anything. Everything I’ve tried has not worked and I’ve tried all the account reset, unlink and relink, delete both apps and reinstall etc. I’ve done EVERYTHING. I even reached out to their useless chat bot for support and never heard anything back after 4 attempts over the course of a week. The reason this app gets no attention is because it’s not loaded with micro transactions. What tragic state of the world we live in. If you get lucky and the app works for you then by all means don’t waste the good luck but rest assured you will need luck to use this app. Just don’t get used to because any day your campfire app may just decide to not recognize what you’re using it for and you’ll never be able to access it ever again.

So I’ve used campfire for a while in hopes it helps with the problem with raiding in Pokemon go, especially in light of Niantic’s infamous decision with remote raids. I have a lucky egg going after finishing one gym and it show there’s another close by that’s said to be hosting a raid. So I’ve drove on over with nearly 4 minutes left in my lucky egg thinking I’ll make it and complete the raid with additional XP. Turns out to my surprised, the location is on private property of sort and going in would be trespassing. But the salt to the wound, no gym with no raid at all. So I’ve wasted time, gas, and my lucky egg for nothing. The closest other gym was over 12 minutes away and I couldn’t be able to pause my lucky egg timer in time. So yeah don’t trust this garbage app completely as it will lie to you, waste your time gas and everything in between, and you could potentially trespass in private property all for a gym that doesn’t exist. Niantic if you’re listening, fix your garbage excuse of a community app, you own it to yourselves after milking your playerbase of its money and location data