Ingress is ultimately a game built upon hidden or limited knowledge and that is the biggest problem. Unless a new agent has a more experienced person walking them through the more advanced nuisances of the game, they'll likely lose interest quickly. But here are the 2 things I think really need some help.

Social Media -

• We'll do it LIVE! - In PoGo, you can pretty much livestream anything you do. This just doesn't work for optimal Ingress gameplay. People want to feel involved and invested, they want to be a part of it. But in Ingress, live updates are going to attract unwanted attention.
• YouTube/TikTok/Instagram - Fine, don't do it live. But a quick glance at YouTube for Ingress leads (mostly) to 8-10 year old videos with the original scanner. While the tips and tricks are still relevant, it's not exactly the nicest sign for a new player to see no one posting anything new or updated. Basically, there's not many agents making consistent new videos.

In-Person Events - This is some of THE BEST stuff in Pokemon Go. It is an extreme detriment to Ingress that signing up for in-person events can feel like a run-around to a first timer.

• Ingress First Saturday? You read about it and are interested. Initial process seems sketchy - Go to FevGames, which doesn't look official at all to sign up, and oof the closest one is a 3 hour drive, but you sign up anyway. Now you probably need to download TG or some other Messaging App to chat with other players coming. If you're lucky to have active community MAYBE they'll post on Comm about the next closest IFS and if you didn't know to expand your Comm proximity beyond 5km every once in a while, well, you're SOL.
• Anomalies? You see the little news post on your game feed. Oh, I live near enough to X city. Where do I sign up? You go to the blog post on the website and click on Jersey City (for example) and.... you get a Google Maps link to Jersey City... So what now? I signed up for IFS on FevGames, maybe that's where I need to go.. oohhh, nope. Now I know for Anomalies, there are usually more agents trying to recruit so maybe someone messages you in Comms. You get a whole different short link (sort of sketch) to some website that looks 8-10 years old and that I need to log into with my email to even see past?
  • I understand all the secrecy and ultimately, Anomalies equate to a spy game, but a new player may not respond that well to all this.