Raid Invites now live in Pokémon Go

After a small delay, Raid Invites are live in Pokémon Go. But the rollout for the new feature is going to be coming along slowly. 

As of Niantic pushing the feature live today, only Level 40 players have access to it. But just like with basically every other addition to the game, the gates will open for lower-level players once the developers are sure there aren’t any major errors. 

Raid Invites allow players who are in-game friends to invite each other to Raid Battles, regardless of where either player is located. It’s still unclear if regions factor into this mechanic, but with the feature now live, we should know all of the specifics soon. 

Initially, Niantic listed that only players who were present in-person at a raid site would be able to invite friends. But because of the global health crisis, that limitation has been removed for now. Once it’s safe for players to resume in-person interaction for Pokémon Go, that limit will be added again. 

The inviting player can send invites to up to five friends as long as they have a Remote Raid Pass to use for the raid. Raid invitations will appear on a player’s Nearby screen and in their push notification bar.

Any trainer who’s invited to a Raid Battle and whites out can rejoin that same lobby by tapping on the Raid Invite on the Nearby menu again once the overworld loads in. 

Only Level 40 players have access to the Raid Invite feature at launch, but those players can invite anyone to participate in raids with them. This feature will slowly roll out to all eligible players soon.