So wait, it only tracks my steps for egg hatching when I have the app open actively?

That feels certifiably insane from a design POV.

My phone ALREADY tracks every step I make. That kind of nonsense should be idle.

I think once the pedometer is out, it'll fix that

Pokémon Go needs to be running in order for... really anything to work. Step tracking, locating nearby Pokémon, what have you. It's part of why the power saver mode exists.

Ironically, Ingress doesn't have that problem - you get notifications when you're near a portal. So you should be able to at least get notifications on PokéStops and Gyms in the future.

I see

Why do I feel like we're in an open beta

because closed beta was maybe a week before launch

and we effectively are.

Remember that Ingress was much the same - it had a closed beta, and then when the game launched it got features at a rapid pace. But that at least had a story justification, I guess.

Basically, this is kind of par for the course, just on a significantly larger scale.

Except it's one where they can collect money from us 8D

True enough...

I mean I hope it gets the same kinds of improvements over time

Because it's still rather entertaining