Hi everyone,
I’m hoping for guidance on best practice when a Wayspot’s physical location still exists, but the business associated with it no longer does, and the name, description, and photo are now inaccurate.
In my community, this happens a lot, and it feels like many Wayspots are frozen in time rather than reflecting what’s currently there.
For example, there’s a Wayspot for a tattoo shop that moved to another part of town years ago. A personal training studio now operates in that same building, but the Wayspot still uses the old tattoo shop name and a photo showing its former signage. When I try to fix this, I’m not sure what Niantic actually wants reviewers to do. Should I edit the title to reflect the current business, update the photo, and change the description all at once? Or does that look like I’m trying to force a brand new Wayspot onto an old one? At what point should a Wayspot be retired entirely if the new business isn’t especially notable?
Another example is a long-established craft brewery that’s been operating for 7–8 years, but the Wayspot at that location is still for an Italian restaurant that closed more than a decade ago.
The strangest case involves a very recognizable red brick building in my town. It houses a toy store, but between about 2011 and 2016, that storefront was temporarily dressed as a fictional general store for filming scenes from Once Upon a Time. Someone created a Wayspot using a photo of the fictional sign placed over the toy store’s real signage. Years later, the show is long gone, the toy store is still there, and the Wayspot remains tied to the fictional business. I’ve tried updating the title, description, and photo to reflect the real, permanent business, but those edits are frequently denied unless I appeal and provide a full backstory explaining why the original Wayspot is no longer accurate.
All of this makes me wonder what the intended workflow is supposed to be. Businesses come and go, but buildings often remain. Is there a recommended approach for:
– Updating a Wayspot when the real-world place has changed but the location is the same?
– Knowing when to edit versus when to remove a Wayspot entirely?
– Avoiding repeated denials when the edits are legitimate but look like “too much change” to reviewers?
Right now it feels like there’s no streamlined way to bring older Wayspots into alignment with current reality, and I’d really appreciate clarity on how Niantic wants these situations handled.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
