UPDATE: It appears that Niantic have changed the submission form that we link to below to not include Pokestop or Gym suggestions in the drop down menu. They also have announced that they are not accepting submissions for Pokestops and Gyms.

ORIGINAL STORY: It’s now been a couple of weeks since the release of Pokemon Go for iOS and Android and players across the nation are discovering great pieces of art, city landmarks, and points of interest in their respective cities through Pokestops and Gyms.

How were these locations chosen for Pokestops and Gyms? In developer’s Niantic’s previous game, Ingress (which you read more about here), the gameplay allows players to capture specific locations (or Portals) in a person’s neighborhood. These locations were submitted by players through the Ingress app as suggestions as places to hack and capture with the game. If approved by Niantic, they were added. The locations had a higher chance of being approved if it was a mural, or a historic building, a church, or a city landmark. These previous approved locations were then transferred over to Pokemon Go and transformed into Pokestops and Gyms.

But what if you want to suggest new locations for a Pokestop or Gym?

On the Pokemon Go website, they have a page where players can submit suggestions for new locations, along with other requests like removing a Pokestop or Gym because it’s dangerous or on someone’s personal property. The form just requires your name, email, reason for the form submission, a note offering a description of the location, and the address of the location (longitude/latitude is an option too). You also can attach an image.

Checking with the Ingress app, the option to submit new locations was removed back in September due to an overwhelming backlog of submissions. We’re sure, Pokemon Go will most likely go through the same thing.