Short answer: the Niantic Profile's visibility dropdown is set per game, not per account. Everyone makes that game's name, level, faction and recent activity public; Friends limits it to your Niantic friends; Only Me hides it from everyone but you. It's separate from Pokémon GO's Online Status toggle, and hiding a game also stops friends from finding you in it by search.
Trainer school
What do the Everyone/Friends/Only Me visibility settings on your Niantic Profile control?
If you've opened your Niantic Profile (the cross-game hub behind your Trainer Profile) and noticed a visibility dropdown next to Pokémon GO, Ingress, or another Niantic title, here's what each setting actually does.
The three levels, per game
Niantic's game profile and visibility settings help page and its who-can-see-my-info page describe the same three options for each Niantic game on your profile:
- Everyone - the game is "publicly visible on your profile": anyone who finds your Niantic Profile can see your in-game name, level, faction and recent activity for it.
- Friends - the game is "only visible to your Niantic friends." Strangers see nothing; people you've added as Niantic friends see the same details as the Everyone setting.
- Only Me - the game is "only visible to you." No one else, friend or stranger, sees it on your profile at all.
You change it from the main profile screen: tap Edit Profile, then open the visibility dropdown for the game you want to adjust. Each Niantic game you play (Pokémon GO, Ingress, Pikmin Bloom, and so on) gets its own independent setting - you can show one game publicly and hide another entirely.
It also controls whether friends can find you by search
This is the part that trips people up: visibility isn't just about what shows on your profile page. Both Niantic help pages state that when a game is hidden, a Niantic friend "will not be able to search you by your in-game name" for that game. Set Pokémon GO to Only Me, and a friend typing your trainer name into their Friends List search won't find you through that route - trainer codes and QR codes still work, since those don't rely on name search. See our guide on every way to add friends for the methods that don't depend on this setting.
One default worth knowing
If you turn off "Let my Friends see my usernames from all Niantic Games" in your Niantic Profile settings, Pokémon GO and Ingress visibility defaults to Only Me automatically - you don't need to touch the per-game dropdown separately for those two titles.
How this differs from Online Status
Niantic Profile visibility and Pokémon GO's Online Status dot are two unrelated controls:
- Niantic Profile visibility decides who can see that you play a given Niantic game at all, and whether they can find you by name search.
- Online Status (see our guide on hiding your online status) is a Pokémon GO-only toggle that shows or hides the green "currently active" dot to friends who have already added you.
You can be Only Me on Niantic Profile visibility and still show an online dot to the handful of friends who already have you added - the two settings don't sync or override each other.
Need more trainers on that list before you start tuning who can see it? Grab a fresh, unused friend code with one tap - sorted by country, with a full country browser if you want a specific region.
FAQ
Does hiding Pokémon GO on my Niantic Profile remove me from friends I've already added? No - visibility and search only affect how new friends find you or what they see on your public profile. Existing friendships, gifts and trades aren't touched.
Can I set visibility differently for Pokémon GO than for another Niantic game? Yes - each game has its own independent dropdown, so you can be Everyone on one title and Only Me on another.
Does Only Me stop friends from sending me gifts or trade requests? Niantic's help pages don't say it does - visibility controls profile display and name search, not whether existing friends can gift or trade with you.
Is this the same as the Online Status green dot? No - they're separate settings covering different things. See the comparison above.
Where exactly do I change it? Open your Niantic Profile, tap Edit Profile, then use the visibility dropdown next to the game you want to change.