Why I built NextCatch

I started playing Pokémon GO in 2016, when it came out. I have the same stories everybody else has, like running to wherever your favorite Pokémon just spawned.

That summer, my wife and I were on a family vacation in Puerto Rico with her aunt. At first we were worried, because the game had launched in the US but not in Puerto Rico. Then, while we were there, it expanded to the island, and we spent the rest of the vacation playing everywhere. We still have a lot of great memories from that trip.

Ten years later, her aunt still plays, and so do we. Now we play with our neighbors, and we take family walks through the park and the neighborhood, catching things together. It's just something we do. It's part of our lives.

NextCatch didn't start from frustration so much as from noticing something. One day I was at the computer while my wife played on the couch, and she asked, "Is it Spotlight Hour today?" I said, "Yeah, I think so. Let me look it up."

That's when it clicked. It wasn't the first time she'd asked me something like that, and she wasn't the only one who did. People always had questions: what's happening, when is it happening, what's going on. I felt there was a need for one place that put it all together and made it easy.

Why I rebuilt it for 2.0

People play in different ways, and that was a big part of NextCatch 1.x. But I needed NextCatch to send updates to iPhone and Android at the same time, and the best way to do that was to start from the ground up. So I rebuilt it.

Rebuilding meant setting some of that play-style work aside. I want to bring it back. NextCatch 2.2 took a small first step with trainer styles and the "Your week" section of the Weekly Brief. It isn't what it was in 1.x yet, and it's more work to do well on both platforms at once, but we're going to grow back into it.

What I want NextCatch to feel like

When you open NextCatch, I want you to feel like you have exactly what you need at your fingertips. You shouldn't have to go looking for answers or sit through a 10-minute video to find one.

There's nothing wrong with those videos. We all have social media content we like to watch. But when I want an answer, I want it fast. I don't want to scrub through a video or dig through search results to get it.

That's what NextCatch is for: your events, your next raid and your own Pokémon, in one place, when you need them.

— Dalvis