I was curious about what does Pokemon go nearby panel tell us. Its not guaranteed that if I linger in that area I will find same Pokemons shown. Also what are grayed out Pokemons for?
Pokemon-go – What does “nearby” tell you in Pokemon Go
pokemon-go
Related Solutions
Incense Pokemon are only seen by you, and from experience they tend to be slightly rarer than the local stuff. However, incense should not affect Pokemon visible to anyone else, so I think it's just good luck that you saw Electabuzz and Venusaur silhouettes.
You can click on that image of goldeen. The box will close and the map will notify you where the goldeen is.
Related Topic
- Pokemon-go – Can Pokemon move from their initial spawn location? If they don’t, then what does the lure do
- Pokemon-go – Does having a buddy Pokemon affect spawn rates
- Pokemon-go – What determines what is Sighted versus Nearby
- Pokemon-go – Are unknown Pokemon guaranteed to show up in Nearby list
- Pokemon-go – What factors influence which Pokemon appears as the daily guaranteed Pokemon encounter
Best Answer
Before the first update, the 'nearby' tab (or more formally known as the tracker) used to show nearby Pokemon with either 1, 2, or 3 footprints. These footprints would show how far a nearby Pokemon was to you, with 1 footprint being the closest and 3 being the furthest.
Since the most recent update, Niantic has removed the footprint tracking features of the tracker, due to its inaccuracy. Now the 'nearby' tab just shows Pokemon that are nearby without any metric of how far away they are. It is a little unclear, but many speculate that if a Pokemon appears on the 'nearby' tab that it is within 200m of your position.
Here's a related question that shows how the tracker worked before the update: Why should I "watch" a nearby pokémon?
As for the greyed out shapes on the 'nearby' tab, those refer to Pokemon that you haven't caught yet. When you first start the game, all of the Pokemon on the tracker appear as grey shapes (except for who you picked as your starter) until you catch them. Once you catch a Pokemon of that variety, it will appear colored-in on the tracker next time you see it. This is especially important because uncaught Pokemon species reward you with an extra +500xp when you catch them, so you generally watch to catch Pokemon that you see greyed out on your tracker.