I noticed that one of the more popular SF pokmeon go mapping websites was using a simple REST API. You gave it a coordinate, and it would spit out locations for all pokemon within a mile radius or so. I created a background python task on my computer that would hit this API every 2 minutes with my apartment's location, plus like a mile range around it.
If it found any rare pokemon (Gyrados, Dragonite, etc.) the python program sent a message to a specific slack channel that I set up. It was an easy way for me to get push notifications on my phone when something spawned around me. From there, I would high tail it on my bike and catch the pokemon. I still have this Pokemon channel at my work Slack instance haha.
It was amazing. My pokedex filled up so quick. This approach only worked for about 3 weeks until Niantic majorly cracked down on their API, which rendered all the API scrappers obsolete. But that period was by far the most fun I had with Pokemon GO. I whipped that program up in like 3 hours on a Saturday and it was the only time in my life where I've felt like a l33t hacker, even though I was doing some very basic REST API operations. The actually impressive thing was the mapping website that was scrapping the actual Niantic API.