It’s well-known that Niantic was working on a trading feature for Pokémon GO. The good news is, the feature is now live and seems to work as expected. However, it’s only for players who currently sits at level 40, which is quite surprising.
Fans have been waiting for the ability to trade ever since the game came out two-years ago, so for some to find out it’s beyond their reach due to their level is probably a little bit unsettling. Now, we should point out that Niantic, in the past, said players needed to be at level 10 to trade, but as of now, only level 40 can use the feature.
In a twitter post, Niantic Support released the following statement:
"We’re gradually rolling out Friends and Trading. Currently, Trainers who are level 40 can now use these features. Thanks for your patience as we work to make these features available to a larger number of Trainers."
There might be a good reason for Niantic to rollout the trading feature to only a selected few because the game, in its current form, feels laggy and slow. Chances are, the developer doesn’t want to overload the Pokémon GO servers.
We know from past experiences that the servers have made it difficult for some players to enjoy features released in the past, so Niantic might have chosen to do whatever it takes to avoid another major blunder.
How to become best friends
According to some players, it’ll take around 90-days of sending gifts, battling, and trading to become best friends. Furthermore, for those who were wondering, the Friend Code is a 12 digit number that is unique to every player, and it’s quite similar to friend codes found on Nintendo devices.
It's all about being patient now as Niantic slowly roll out the new feature to fans worldwide.