Ingress AMA Archive

Any clarifications regarding portal/wayspot criteria is outdated.
Please refer to the official Wayfarer criteria for all current criteria

September 26th 2017

Q1: Will the number of submissions granted to each agent increase or decrease based on the quality of their submissions going forward?
A1: Seven is the limit for now. We may adjust this over time.
Q2: In some random packs of swag and various other things, Niantic includes a ‘recruitment card’ -- a business card that has some basic links to Ingress.com and such. Our community would really like to buy, like, a couple hundred of those to distribute and use to recruit more players. I’m betting there’s a pile of them somewhere...maybe in a closet near your office, under John Hanke’s desk, or near the Title for the NL-1331 van? Can we get some of those to purchase, please?
A2: If I can find them, you can have them.
Q3: How long does it take from submitting a portal to showing up in opr?
A3: Anywhere from 24 hours to a week.
Q4: Someone asked why events are always on a weekend and appreciate that would suit the majority of players; would you consider something like a satellite event (leading up to the main events), held during the week, to give a greater range; perhaps winners of the satellites could get useful intel to pass on to the PoC for the main event?
A4: Not a bad idea.
Q5: Do you plan to restore seer eventually?
A5: Not at this time.
Q6: Can you confirm why exactly Ingress has decided to not award badges for BAF and Recharge Rooms? I welcome the move, would just like clarity about the same.
A6: Unfortunately, there was some abuse of the system and people that should not have received badges, because they did not participate, were put on lists to receive badges.
Q7: Will there be anomalies in Q1 and Q2 of 2018?
A7: I hope so!
Q8: There is a rumor that all current character & inventory codes will become invalid when Ingress 2.0 is rolled out. Is this true?
A8: No. This is not true.
Q9: Hello Andrew: Can you give us a short update on the Prime Vanguards:
A9: How many agents (roundabout) applied - over 3300 Have you and your team read all the applications already? - All that fit the criteria of being acceptable. Meaning people who just put a smiley face as to why they should be a Vanguard we discarded. Has the Vanguards been chosen? - Yes When will be revealed who has been chosen? - I have some more work to do surrounding this so I don't have an exact date. Is your beard already green? - Not yet. Sometime this week though. If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it... What colour is the tree? - Five
Q10: Is Niantic going to issue badges to remote rechargers in Q4?
A10: No.
Q11: Do you think it would be possible to one day implement the one-finger turn?
A11: This will be available in Ingress 2.0
Q12: How are you doing? :)
A12: Fantastic!
Q13: Is there one anomaly or anomaly experience that stands out in your mind?
A13: There is more than one. I'm not sure that I could boil it down to just one.
Q14: Why do we not always get at least one key from a portal?
A14: Random number generator. Luck of the draw.
Q15: Submissions are accessible from Lvl 11. Does OPR min lvl still is 12?
A15: Yes. OPR's level is still 12.
Q16: The portal criteria and the anomaly FAQ seem to be outdated on the support site. Are there plans of updating those?
A16: Thanks for pointing this out. I'll pass it along.
Q17: Do you call this weekend improved quality assurance, especially relating to change of rules, Slovenia markers and D.C. Targets?
A17: Yes. Both things have already been corrected in our workflow.
Q18: I'll ask again. Where would the best place to ask be to know if the Ingress servers to have a counter for the server connection time per player.
A18: Good question. I know WoW has this. I don't think we do though. Tag NIA OPS in a Google+ post and they can confirm.
Q19: We're currently limited to 7 submissions. Rumours abound about that expanding to 10. Is there any way to increase your number of submissions, so that people can go on trips and submit a heap of rural portals?
A19: Currently, there is no way to increase the number. I'm not sure what the future holds though.
Q20: For NIA, what is your favorite social network that every agent should follow? G + have a future for NIA?
A20: Right now, I think G+ has the best community organization tools that is relatively easy to access and use. Facebook Groups is just not the same.
Q21: When will we receive the decode keys for...
A21: PAC has a way of finding this information out. I'll talk to him and see if he has any leads.
Q22: Hi Andrew! I keep hearing about this awesome dating app.. I think it’s called reswue? How many trust points does it take to make the swipe feature work and to get a free toaster oven? And if +Emporess Amanda has negative points why does she say she gets so many match’s?
A22: You need 69 trust points to make it work. Who is Emporess Amanda? (inside joke)
Q23: Long time fan, first time commenter. How do you like your popcorn? I'm a light salt, heavy butter fan myself
A23: We just bought an air popper. I love it. I'm a light garlic salt and light butter person with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese.
Q24: When you take a break from capturing portals with your friends, and stop for some Pizza - Is it Chicago Style (Deep Dish) or New York Style (Thin Crust)? Do you expect this to change before the next Anomaly ?
A24: It really depends on my mood.
Q25: Will it ever be possible to reorder completed missions on your agent profile?
A25: I don't know. But I hope so.
Q26: Greetings Mr. Krug . . . . .Programmatically, how difficult would it be to add additional SORT Features, especially to Key Lockers. e.g. Sort by faction, Sort by number of keys, Sort by re-charge strength?
A26: I am the wrong person to ask.
Q27: Hi Andrew, I just attended Seoul MRS and now in San Francisco for business from Japan. Also, I think I have the highest Illuminator score in Japan. Is there a chance I can visit your office for a tour?
A27: Congratulations on the Illuminator stats! We actually don't do tours of our office anymore. Back in the Google days we did.
Q28: Are you able to tell us when the sign ups for Embedded Reporters will be posted for Exo5?
A28: I have it slated for sometime around October 6th.
Q29: So, What percentage of agents participating do you think will be able to reach the third EXO Challenge goal of 2000?
A29: Realistically, not a lot. It was designed with that in mind.