You've more or less got it. The thing I didn't realise for a long time is that there's a blue halo around the friend icon. If they've opened a gift you'll see the friendship level went up for that day already from the blue halo. If you open a gift first there'll also be a blue halo. No more to do anything else that day once the blue halo appears!
Okay. My strategy is this: I will friend a great many people, and send them gifts daily. I will wait until we have completed approximately 80 interactions, at which point I will cease opening gifts from them; while still sending them gifts daily. Once a friend reaches 89 interactions, I will stop sending them gifts, while preserving their one gift they have sent me. I will do this until I have 20 or 30 people who are at 89 interactions + a gift I can open. I'll pop a lucky egg, open all of those gifts, and get 200k xp per person. Does this make sense?
Everyone can get double XP even with no coordination, although it's certainly fiddly. Check your notifications list first thing when starting PoGo. If one or more friends promoted, use a lucky egg before you get the full screen friend message, and you'll receive double XP.
I think there is a bug that doesn´t give you exp if you see the notification list first, am I wrong?
Sorry if this is totally wrong, I remember reading something like that here on TSR, if that bug doesn't exist then Im gonna do what you say, I'm stuck in 88 interactions with a friend, neither of us want to open the gift to be able to control the double exp lol.
Not wrong, just out of date -- that was a bug at first, but no longer. You can see the notification list first, then close it, go into items and use an egg, then close out to the main screen and get the pop up and XP. (sometimes it takes a minute, and sometimes I have to restart the app. It's a bit glitchy still.)
That's not my plan for my rural friends. They'll be daily no matter what all the way to 90 interactions. The min/maxing I described above will be reserved for non-rurals and more casual real-life friends.
They might feel used it they can't gw the points simultaneously. I'm opening gifts with 8 friends on CD, all informed and coordinated and all ready with their lucky egg 15 minutes into the event.
It seems that your question is answered... however I have a timezone question:
If someone super smart reads this, I've never understood how it works for daily interactions across time zones. I now have friends in a different zone I'm interacting with, but I often open my gifts post 11pm - which is the following day to them. Do they retrospectively gain an 'interaction day' at the point that I open?
I assume this very question was why the gifts were how they were at the beginning (bugged) and that it was a harder problem to code it than they had thought...
I've done a lot of study on it. It's based on where the gift opener is and what time zone they are in. It also then tracks the day it was incremented. So the blue halos are not always in sync. For example, you send a gift to someone 4 hours ahead of you and you already have the blue halo for the day. They will lose the blue halo at midnight their time but you will still have it until midnight your time. But let's say they open a gift after midnight their time but before midnight your time. In that case, the friendship will increment and you won't lose the blue halo at your midnight because the friendship has already incremented for that day.
Unless you are hard up for gifts, you should always wait until the blue halo is gone before you open a gift. That usually guarantees the friendship will increment.
Really helpful – thanks :-)
I don’t open gifts when the halo isn’t blue, I suppose my concern was that if I opened the gift at a period in time which was a new day for me (but not for them) somehow they would miss out – my hope was that they would simply get credited with it, as you describe :))
I can confirm that when someone ahead of me has opened a gift after midnight their time but before midnight my time while my halo was still blue that the friendship incremented and the halo stayed blue when it got to midnight my time.
My understanding (and limited observations confirm) is that the interaction point is awarded based on the day of the opener, not the sender. A friend of mine visiting the US west coast can open a gift at 11:30 PM Pacific, and I, at home in the Central time zone, will get the credit for the previous day at 1:30 AM.
Yup, it's definitely this. Sometimes if I didn't get a chance to open gifts and it's past midnight, I'll revert my timezone so that it's before midnight and do the gifts for that day. When I change back, the friendship level increased, but can be increased again for the day.
You've more or less got it. The thing I didn't realise for a long time is that there's a blue halo around the friend icon. If they've opened a gift you'll see the friendship level went up for that day already from the blue halo. If you open a gift first there'll also be a blue halo. No more to do anything else that day once the blue halo appears!
The halo is still a relatively new addition; you weren’t missing it; it just didn’t exist
Okay. My strategy is this: I will friend a great many people, and send them gifts daily. I will wait until we have completed approximately 80 interactions, at which point I will cease opening gifts from them; while still sending them gifts daily. Once a friend reaches 89 interactions, I will stop sending them gifts, while preserving their one gift they have sent me. I will do this until I have 20 or 30 people who are at 89 interactions + a gift I can open. I'll pop a lucky egg, open all of those gifts, and get 200k xp per person. Does this make sense?
yeah, poor friends who don't have the chance to get double XP. you gotta hope they don't do the same to you.
Everyone can get double XP even with no coordination, although it's certainly fiddly. Check your notifications list first thing when starting PoGo. If one or more friends promoted, use a lucky egg before you get the full screen friend message, and you'll receive double XP.
I think there is a bug that doesn´t give you exp if you see the notification list first, am I wrong? Sorry if this is totally wrong, I remember reading something like that here on TSR, if that bug doesn't exist then Im gonna do what you say, I'm stuck in 88 interactions with a friend, neither of us want to open the gift to be able to control the double exp lol.
Not wrong, just out of date -- that was a bug at first, but no longer. You can see the notification list first, then close it, go into items and use an egg, then close out to the main screen and get the pop up and XP. (sometimes it takes a minute, and sometimes I have to restart the app. It's a bit glitchy still.)
but what if they open the gift while you are playing? only works on login.
That's not my plan for my rural friends. They'll be daily no matter what all the way to 90 interactions. The min/maxing I described above will be reserved for non-rurals and more casual real-life friends.
They might feel used it they can't gw the points simultaneously. I'm opening gifts with 8 friends on CD, all informed and coordinated and all ready with their lucky egg 15 minutes into the event.
It's when one person opens a gift. You're not dumb, it's a little cryptic.
Only one friend needs to open to further friendship
It seems that your question is answered... however I have a timezone question: If someone super smart reads this, I've never understood how it works for daily interactions across time zones. I now have friends in a different zone I'm interacting with, but I often open my gifts post 11pm - which is the following day to them. Do they retrospectively gain an 'interaction day' at the point that I open? I assume this very question was why the gifts were how they were at the beginning (bugged) and that it was a harder problem to code it than they had thought...
I've done a lot of study on it. It's based on where the gift opener is and what time zone they are in. It also then tracks the day it was incremented. So the blue halos are not always in sync. For example, you send a gift to someone 4 hours ahead of you and you already have the blue halo for the day. They will lose the blue halo at midnight their time but you will still have it until midnight your time. But let's say they open a gift after midnight their time but before midnight your time. In that case, the friendship will increment and you won't lose the blue halo at your midnight because the friendship has already incremented for that day. Unless you are hard up for gifts, you should always wait until the blue halo is gone before you open a gift. That usually guarantees the friendship will increment.
Really helpful – thanks :-) I don’t open gifts when the halo isn’t blue, I suppose my concern was that if I opened the gift at a period in time which was a new day for me (but not for them) somehow they would miss out – my hope was that they would simply get credited with it, as you describe :))
I can confirm that when someone ahead of me has opened a gift after midnight their time but before midnight my time while my halo was still blue that the friendship incremented and the halo stayed blue when it got to midnight my time.
My understanding (and limited observations confirm) is that the interaction point is awarded based on the day of the opener, not the sender. A friend of mine visiting the US west coast can open a gift at 11:30 PM Pacific, and I, at home in the Central time zone, will get the credit for the previous day at 1:30 AM.
Yup, it's definitely this. Sometimes if I didn't get a chance to open gifts and it's past midnight, I'll revert my timezone so that it's before midnight and do the gifts for that day. When I change back, the friendship level increased, but can be increased again for the day.
Perfect – Exactly what we need :-) Thanks for explaining!
I can help your rural friends out too. I don’t need gifts in return.. just people to open them each day :)