Short answer: Pokémon GO has no "last seen" timestamp for friends. The clearest sign is a gift that keeps failing to send because they haven't opened your last one, over several days — not just one. Their Trainer Profile's most recent catch can confirm it, if they haven't hidden it. A climbing friendship level proves nothing: sending alone keeps it moving.
Trainer school
How to tell if a Pokémon GO friend has stopped playing
A friend who's still on your list but has gone quiet is a different problem from one who's vanished entirely — Niantic doesn't publish an activity timestamp for either case, so you're reading behavior, not a status field. Here are the three signals that actually hold up.
Signal 1: a gift that won't send (the most reliable one)
Per the rules in our gifts guide, you can't send a friend a second gift until they've opened the one already sitting with them. If you gift the same friend daily and the app starts blocking you with "they haven't opened your previous gift" — and that keeps happening for several days running — their gift queue isn't clearing, which means nobody's logging in to open it. One blocked day could just be a late opener; a week or more of it is real.
Signal 2: their Trainer Profile stops changing
Niantic's own friend list and friendship level documentation confirms a friend's Trainer Profile shows their most recently caught Pokémon, Trainer level and XP, Distance Walked, and number of Battles won. Check back on it occasionally — if the "recently caught" Pokémon never changes and the level/XP number is frozen, they likely haven't opened the app. Some players disable the catch display in Settings, so a profile showing nothing there isn't proof either way — it could just be a privacy choice.
Signal 3: the online status dot — weaker than it looks
The green online-status dot (documented here) only appears for friends who have also manually switched themselves online from their own Friend List — it's opt-in on both sides, not an automatic "currently playing" flag. Seeing a friend go green is a strong sign they're active right now; never seeing it proves nothing, since most players never toggle it on at all.
The myth to drop: a climbing friendship level isn't proof
It's tempting to read a frozen friendship level as proof a friend has quit — but friendship points count from either side: since the December 2025 update, sending or opening a gift moves the shared bar, so if you keep gifting them daily, the level keeps climbing even if they never open a single thing back. A rising number next to their name tells you about your own gifting habit, not theirs.
What to do once you're sure
Interacting with a confirmed-inactive friend still earns your own side of the friendship point, so they aren't costing you anything invisible — but they are a dead slot if your friend list is getting full. Removing them is completely silent either way, no apology or notification needed. Refill the slot with a fresh, unused code — browse by country if you're filling out a Vivillon roster instead of taking pot luck.
FAQ
Does Pokémon GO show when a friend was last online? No — there's no last-seen timestamp anywhere in the app. The signals above (gift delivery, Trainer Profile changes, the online dot) are the closest substitutes.
Could a gift that won't send be a bug instead of real inactivity? Possibly for a single day, especially during a high-traffic event when the game occasionally glitches. Give it several days before concluding they've actually stopped playing.
Can I ask Niantic support whether an account is still active? No — Niantic doesn't disclose another player's account status to you, even if you're friends.
Does removing an inactive friend notify them? No — removal is completely silent on both sides, same as any other unfriending.
What if their name disappears from my list instead of just going quiet? That's a different situation — see why a friend vanishes entirely (removal, a cross-game sync, a ban, or a glitch).