Last updated on January 25th, 2026 at 06:30 am
Ingress – Roleplaying Game Review
Ingress is a Roleplaying/Strategy game from Niantic Spatial, Inc., first launched in 14th July 2014.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 5,126+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Ingress Stand Out
ENTER THE INGRESS UNIVERSE
Welcome, Agent. A mysterious energy source known as Exotic Matter (XM) has been discovered. Its origin is unknown, and its power is seemingly unlimited. Two Factions are racing to control it, and the future of humanity hangs in the balance. The newly enhanced Ingress Scanner is online, and waiting for you.
THE WORLD IS YOUR GAME
Step outside and turn the real world into your battlefield. Explore landmarks, monuments, and hidden corners of your city. Every public artwork and point of interest becomes a Portal: a gateway to gather XM and uncover the secrets that are shaping our world.
CHOOSE YOUR FACTION
Will you enlighten humanity’s evolution with The Enlightened, or defend free will from mind control with The Resistance? Your choice defines your mission, your allies, and your destiny.
TEAM UP, THINK BIG
Coordinate with Agents nearby and across the globe. Build strategies, plan operations, and take part in live events that reshape the map, and reality itself.
CONTROL THE BATTLEFIELD
Capture and link Portals to create massive Control Fields spanning entire cities. Compete for dominance, territory, and influence in a global, ever-changing war.
YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW
XM is everywhere. The battle is real. Download Ingress and join the fight.
Note: Agents must be over 13 years old (for residents outside of the European Economic Area); or over 16 years old or such age needed to consent to the processing of personal data in the Agent's country of residence (for residents of the European Economic Area). Unfortunately, no children may play Ingress.
The optional Adventure Sync feature integrates with HealthKit to credit your distance traveled Agent Stats, even when Ingress is in the background.
Support
Contact us in-game by going to Settings > Help Center > Go.
Privacy Policy
https://www.nianticspatial.com/privacy
Terms of Service
https://www.nianticspatial.com/terms
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Ingress is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 15th January 2026
Recent improvements include:
Fixes
• Fixed an issue on variable-rate displays that caused screen flashing and freezes.
• Fixed C.A.R.G.O. Inventory screen banner so tapping the X button will close it.
Download & Availability
Ingress is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Anytime you launch the app, it cuts out the sound from any app on your device. Sometimes theyll fix it. Sometimes it comes back. Whoevers got that bad code in github needs to delete it and have extra PRs on their code!!! Or add a test case specifically to test this. Please.
This game will stop what you are listening to. Free to play game with in app purchases. In the last year or so more and more of this game is devoted to selling a monthly subscription. Way more than half of the limited time events are paid only. The play screen is now being crowded with ads to buy items with premium credits. Another thing ruined by greed.
Love this game! We have been playing since 2018. Mind puzzles, strategy, and scavenger hunts await. However the developers have gotten greedy in recent months and are attempting to sell expensive, unnecessary items far too often with marketing tactics that routinely interferes with game play. There are great ways to be profitable without tanking the game by upsetting your loyal fan base.
Overall a fun game once you get the hang of it. That said, since iOS 26 came out, the game freezes quite a bit. This can be problematic during a timed operation/event.
We upgraded our phone to iOS 26. Then the app started to lagging, we dont know if it was our phone problems. So we downloaded ingress again, now , it starts flashing ( still lagging) we dont know how to fix, can u tell us? Should we buy a new phone for ingress.
Lately the screen starts flashing and not responding after completing an action. Have to force close and restart the app to even exit that screen. Only happens with Ingress, so its not our phone.
Ingress remains one of the most innovative and immersive games on mobile. There is simply nothing else like it. It turns the entire world into a living, evolving battlefield where every walk, every errand, every landmark becomes part of a global strategy game. After all these years, we are still amazed at how Ingress blends exploration, teamwork, lore, and real-world adventure into something that feels genuinely meaningful. We play Enlightened, and while both factions are fun and full of passionate players, there is no denying there is consistently a huge disparity in numbers. For whatever reason, more new agents seem drawn to Resistance at first glance, often outnumbering Enlightened two to one in many areas. It makes victories as an Enlightened agent even more satisfying, but it can also skew the game balance for new players. We actually think Niantic could help with this in a subtle, subliminal-style way. When the game sees that one faction significantly outnumbers the other, the intro sequence or onboarding dialogue could gently lean into the idea that the smaller side is the side that needs you or is pursuing the real truth. Not forcing anything, not breaking the story, just a soft nudge. If Resistance is overloaded, maybe the Enlightened could be framed as the underdog seekers of discovery. If Enlightened ever outnumbered Resistance, flip the implication. Simple, lore-friendly, and it helps balance the global conflict naturally. But even with the uneven population, Ingress remains absolutely incredible. The sense of community, the strategic depth, the satisfaction of flipping a whole neighborhood green nothing compares. If you want a game that gets you exploring your city, meeting people, and thinking five moves ahead, Ingress is unmatched. Enlightened or Resistance, it is still one of the best mobile gaming experiences ever created. Highly recommended.
We love the activity and game play of Ingress. It is fun to be able to interact with a world that most people dont see. Soldiers in a hidden battle.
We used to play this years ago with our dad and loved it. We even drove to an event in Florida many years back and then one day we were randomly banned and was confused as to what we did. When we tried to appeal it they declined it and we asked what we did wrong and they said they couldnt disclose the reason. Some friends of our dad said that if you pick up items that someone had gotten illegally then your account could be banned and Im assuming we picked up either keys or something else and didnt know they were illegally obtained (since theres no way to know). Because of how long ago it was we recently tried signing in and was met with access denied. Maybe Ill make a new account and try to restart but if we remember, having multiple accounts was against the rules so who knows if we can do that.
Needs more cool mods, like a mod that fire supporting portal 50-100 meters away. So if we attack portal and in range of that mod it attack us, so it can control and protect a zone with some radius. Like artillery fire base. Its too easy to destroy portals. And also update ASAP, the lower mods need to be upgradable or replaceable, its out of control, when you stuck with L1 mod, what are you thinking? Also mods should have 5 bars, not 3. Also mods and portals should gain experience, so they fight better, and you not sure how strong portal + mods you encounter. The Battling needs MORE work! Also you must have some disable time if you attack, and receive damage. It would be VERY cool if you could leave some objects like mines for damage around, with some special radar for demining them. Also if we could encode our own glyphs, in some weapon, and the opponent has to decode it or get damage.
Super fun game if you travel! You dont have to be good at it you just have to get off the couch and explore. The only change we would make, that Ive notice so far, is if you have a cluster of portals in your circle it would be nice to be able to hack them all at one. Hold down the hack button to hack all for example. Same goes for the xmp busters. It would be nice to use 10 or so at once especially if theyre low level xmp busters.
The level of blue spoofers in Utah and the unbridled harassment has made it not something one would enjoy playing. Find something better to do.
Great game along with Pokmon go to get your daily exercise in.
Been playing a long time and we keep coming back. Very helpful to learn a new are and city. A lot of hidden places to see we would have missed if we did play.
There we no comparison between this and Pokmon Go, this is far better. A great game; the learning curve is a little steep, but it is rewarding. The game is thick with intrigue and thats kind of what makes it compelling. We like it and hope Niantic can continue to develop this particular game as more augmented reality technology becomes more prevalent. Would love to be able to see this game through AR augmented glasses, wow.
Still like playing the game, but really liked the old scanner better. Need more players in the game.
Ive been at level 10 for a long time. It takes to much to level up. Ive been playing for years.
We dont know how the developers thought taking away the ability to post two level seven resonators was a good idea. Making portals weaker is not a step forward with game play. After traveling around the country, and the world Do we really need something more to make the game less than enjoyable to play? Ill wait for them to fix this before we continue.
The two factions hanging out at bars. How do you play a PVP game this way.
The game used to be fun but its devolved into a toxic soup of players accusing other players of cheating.
The number of players who are spoofing and multi accounting is extremely frustrating for honest players. We keep playing our game, but Niantic needs to takes reports of spoofing, multi accounting, and harassment of women much more seriously. Its ridiculous.
We cant even get passed the startup screen. We get to link it to an account and then it has the accept terms and conditions type of screen and it just just says error occurred and doesnt let us get passed it. This issue is happening on iPhone for us, please fix.
This game is amazing at mixing ar and real life in an online war. We just want to point out just two things to make the game better. 1. Clearer tutorial The first thing is that we dont think the tutorial might have been clear enough, because even after the tutorial, we didnt know how to use the weapons or what the power cubes were. We dont know, though, maybe you did. Maybe it just has something to do with us being part of the resistance. But still, even so, you should be a bit clearer. 2. Easier time leveling up The second thing is that this might go only for us, but its really difficult trying to level up. Now, when we say easier time leveling up, we dont mean it being a cakewalk, because those games usually get boring after a few weeks. We mean that instead of taking you, for example, a week to level up, it just takes four days. All in all, this is a great game, and we hope you improve a lot :) EDIT: Also we think another benefit might be to add the app on watches, so you can check on portals and km will count even if you dont have your phone or iPad with you.
We walk several miles a day and game gives us different places to go and explore.
Ive played Ingress for five years now. Its a pretty good game. We enjoyed it and will likely continue to play it for years to come. Gripes: we miss the historical anomaly battles. Ive played in 6 different city battles and met tons of awesome people. The newer events are pretty lackluster. Hopefully, they will construct new events to get people enjoying the game again. We liked the old scanner much better than the current one. The controls still dont feel right and doing regular and repeated things should be easier with less input required. Population of resonators takes way too long, imo. Also, starting up the game before being able to actually play is very slow (iPhone 13 Pro, currently). To this day, it is still impossible to adequately remote recharge an owned portal being attacked by an opponent and be able to hold the portal. The refresh rate for the health status of the portal just simply doesnt register fast enough. Lastly, spoofers are still a problem and its likely that there will never be any actions taken against them. There is absolutely no way to prove someone is spoofing to Niantic. Videos with timestamps of the area are ignored and logs are not checked. There is probably a monetary reason for the lack of cares given. Likes: The game opens up the world around us. Everywhere we go, its possible to find interesting or historical places of interest, trails, and user-created missions due to the portal network. Most of the community Ive us are fun/good to drink tasty beverage with, etc. Luckily, Ive had multiple people from the game provide us flights, room/board, and getting to experience new places (all because of scheduled Ingress events). Overall, even with the scanner limitations, the game is still fun to us. If you like making triangles, its definitely worth checking out.
This game isnt too good it doesnt let you have that much fun if you wanna fun game go to Pokmon go now thats a fun game. Now this reviews on for the game now for the company niantic for Pokemon Go they listen to their communityUnlike their Ingresses community where they dont care they are most likely to Ban you from this game if you have a little fun now in Pokmon go you can have all sorts of fun not to mention the bubble of where things are obtainable is a lot bigger than the one in this game this game is not wheelchair friendly.
Customer support is nonexistent, and Niantic has become more concerned with making money with in game transactions than following their terms and conditions, allowing agents who use multiple accounts and devices, as well as spoofing and using bots to cheat and make it an unfair playing field for the agents that play the right way and follow the terms and conditions. There needs to be more accountability on Niantics end to keep this in check.
The interface keeps getting updated and without fail it is less enjoyable every time this happens. Widespread feature requests from the community just get ignored. Player count is dropping drastically and there is little being done to incentivize people to continue playing. We deleted this months ago because we were the only one in our area playingwhats the point.
Lagress is the game that makes you wait while announcing your location to the sociopaths of the world and killing your phone battery.
Application has become unstable when doing actions. Recharging at time is stuck and does not return back to normal until killing and restarting the application. Same issue happens when doing other action or if you scroll on your keys fast it hangs. The number of bugs on the application keep increasing but no resolution for years.
We recently purchased currency to purchase Nano Packs (XMP) and it gave us the first order, but never the second. Seems to be a bit glitchy but still worth it for how helpful it is in finding hotspots in our rural area. Just know that it might not always reward purchases.
Im stuck at level 10 when we should be at level 11 we talked to ingress and no response.
We are a combat disabled veteran with multiple traumatic brain injuries so this, although we are slow, helps with our brain processing, as we cant interface with tvs, tablets, and most internet supplied units. Thanks.
Been asking for supporting right to left languages, such as Arabic, since Prime was in Beta. All portals names and descriptions with Arabic text are showing with reversed letter sequence. This was not a problem in Scanner Redacted.
We enjoy this game though we dont play often. We tend to participate more in events. An issue Ive had is that the game is too bright. We would like a setting we can toggle the brightness of portals and certain objects so we can reduce the contrast and play the game like it used to be.
Niantic cannot stop spoofing, cheat tech stays ahead of anything they try, so they bury their heads in the sand and pretend its not a problem. They abet the spoofing by incentivizing it. They do this in ingress by leaving traces of the cheaters on the game board, even after they get banned, if they get banned at all. They abet the spoofers by making it easy for them to troll, by allowing them access to boosts at low levels, by allowing them gear codes to obtain gear they dont earn or deserve. They abet Spoofers by not implementing a reporting mechanism that can quickly freeze a harassing account so that it can be investigated for more action if necessary. Niantic has lost thousands of customers because they continue to ignore the problem and ignore the advice and begging of their paying customers. Stop paying or quit, until they take meaningful action. Sadly, many have and are quitting.
For ban large part of the world, 9 years of playing. 2000days of strait soujorner. If this helps to stop Mr. P. Go on. We just want to know how? Btw you made a great job, for unite people all across the world, dont ruin it. You made people separate from politics, links fly across the borders, fields, that ignores conflicts, and wars, we hope you will stand for those! And may be someday theres no mans who could decide to counterpart some nation by his own will. We hope you will return, someday.
Great game you meet a lot of great people and go a lot of places you can run solo or team up with others.
Very cool game that allows you interact with the world. Much fun.
The community is all over the world and the discord while inactive is nice.
We wish 7 and 8 gear we would buy a lot more.
We love playing this game, it has been so much fun exploring our community and other small towns we would have never thought of going to. We always make sure to play some ingress when we are out traveling. The mission add an even more exciting aspect to the game! We recommend it to everyone we know.
This is a game that mimics games we grew up with like Risk but adds true human elements and the interactions that people and governments have with each other. Resources, kick your castle down, take your stuff, break things. Its an endorphin rush. We are a lifer now.
Absolutely addicted to Ingress. Because of this game: we exercise by walking and playing, and we enjoy it. We have met interesting fellow players. We have learned about hidden/unnoticed art and objects of community interest. Update still playing, 8 years on. Still exploring, participating in events, and playing almost every day. The rest of this review was for a MUCH earlier version! We have started using Google+ to communicate with other players. BUT: Since this is a Google game, the iOS version is buggy — especially latest version which is whole new levels of annoying/frustrating! Get used to re-launching the app and cussing at it regularly. And you will need an external battery – this is an excessive battery drainer, even when not allowed to access location info when off.
Ive been playing since mid June 2015, and although the interface has changed over the years, at its core, Ingress is still the best AR game out there when it comes to games that will get you outside and remain socially distanced during these pandemic times. Because of the exploration theme behind the game, we have found more trails to hike, seen new cities that arent always a half continent away, and strategized with teammates from both our own town and the surrounding region – including across state borders. While there is a huge chunk of Ingress player base that is heavily competitive between two teams, the newer players coming in from Pokemon Go and other games have discovered some of the more cooperative angles of the game (including in the now-virtual First Saturday events), and some of the badge challenges that occasionally pop up. Whether you are looking for a steeplechase-type event like a Hexathlon, a citywide conquest in larger groups called an anomaly (anomalies are postponed during the pandemic), individual road races against the clock for checkpoints, out to build your own set of triangles or tear an enemy factions triangles down – or of you are out to explore and add new AR markers (portals) to the map, this game offers a lot of different games within the game, bringing something for everyone, no matter your age, or physical condition. Its a bit more than a digital capture the flag game. The world around you is not what it seems is an understatement of a tag line, and we are happy to be part of a community of a still-growing players even now at the 10 year anniversary of the game. Slick graphics and game play aside, sure, there are occasional bugs, just like every other phone game. And there are also some very dedicated staff workers behind the scenes working on combatting game issues and smoothing over programming bugs within due course. Above all, this game has a solid community behind it, and we look forward to seeing the game continue to develop and grow.
Better than Pokmon by a long run.
We are excited Niantic fixed the iOS problem so we can return to the only game we play. Gets us Out and exploring, walking, seeing new things, and making new friends.
Our character drifts even when we stand still ! We cant plant any resonator's nor attack because it keeps drifting! ButGreat game after all! Please fix tho.
Pros are obvious if you decide to play the game. Team play, getting out of the house is a must to play and be successful. We enjoy the real life fantasy underworld integration. Ive been playing for 6 years plus. Competition can get a lil spicy. Theres many levels and layers to the game that, depending on your involvement, can keep you involved even when you cant get out constantly. The cons. In a word, CHEATING! Theres plenty of rules and regulations to help keep gameplay even for everyone. Where theres a will theres a way. And in this game theres plenty of will for some reason. Some players have no problem using their tech savvy skills to take advantage of the players who dont. Niantic, because this is a free game, does the bare minimum in its efforts to catch even the most brazen cheaters. If you can accept knowing that, then we highly recommend this game.
Niantic is dumb to continue this cheat infested bully game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 3.3.1
- Size: 364.83 MB
- iOS: 15.0 or later
- Languages: CS, NL, EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, NB, PT, RU, ZH, ES, SV, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
- Developer: Niantic Spatial, Inc.
Last updated: 15th January 2026 | Genre: Roleplaying, Strategy | Developer: Niantic Spatial, Inc.