The Pokémon GO team

Trainers,

We just revealed how we’re bringing Pokémon GO to Apple Watch on stage at the Apple event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

As you know, Pokémon GO is about blending gameplay and imagination with getting exercise and exploring the real world around you. Apple Watch will add a seamless way to interact with the game through easy trackers, haptic notifications and quick taps to keep playing. Additionally, the Pokémon GO app for Apple Watch encourages workouts with summaries of your activity, which fits in nicely both with Niantic’s mission to get you moving as well as with the way many people already use their Apple Watch. Pokémon GO will come to Apple Watch later in the year so stay tuned.

In other news, we have also revealed a cool milestone for Pokémon GO. In the last eight weeks, Pokémon GO surpassed 500 million downloads around the world and players have collectively walked 4.6 billion kilometers, which is the dista...

It’s almost here! Nintendo and The Pokémon Company just announced that Pokémon GO Plus will be available in much of the world next week, on Sept. 16.

Pokémon GO Plus is a companion device that connects to your phone over Bluetooth^® Smart (the Bluetooth low energy connection designed for health and fitness applications), allowing you to keep your phone in your pocket and go about your day-to-day activities while still being able to collect valuable resources and capture even the most elusive Pokémon. We’ve been testing it here at Niantic and we love the way it allows you to blend Pokémon GO even more seamlessly into family and fitness activities. Now you’ll be able to play and enjoy your walk, run, hike, park trips or visits to the library without having to look at your screen all the time.

As you pass by a PokéStop, Pokémon GO Plus will vibrate and light up and alert you to the location. You’ll even be able to collect new items just by c...

Hi everyone,

It's been a busy summer and, in addition to battling bots and fixing bugs, we’ve also been busy working on some new features for our Pokémon GO Trainers. As you know, we recently released the new Pokémon Appraisal feature, which helps Trainers identify which Pokémon has the most potential for battle. Today we wanted to let you know about a new feature for the game that is just around the corner.

The next addition to Pokémon GO will be Buddy Pokémon. You will be able to pick your favorite Pokémon from your collection to become your buddy, opening up unique in-game rewards and experiences. Buddy Pokémon will appear alongside your Trainer avatar on your profile screen, adding helpful bonuses such as awarding Candy for walking together. You’...

We continue to work to ensure the integrity of the game and the health of our servers by blocking unauthorized access and at times by banning offending accounts. This includes blocking bots, data scraping operations, and banning end user accounts associated with those activities. Some players may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon. Each end-user app can be used as a collection tool by the app creator, invisibly collecting and forwarding data to the app creator with or without the knowledge of the end user. These apps can have an effect similar to DDoS attacks on our servers. Because of this we have had to ban some accounts associated with using these add-on map tools, leading to confusion by some users about why they were banned. This is a small subset of the accounts banned.

As a result of some changes made to our infrastructure, we are now able to unban this set of accounts. Add-on maps which scrape data from ou...

Trainers,

Pokémon GO is in the process of being updated to version 0.35.0 for Android and 1.5.0 for iOS devices. Below are some release notes and comments from our development team.

• Implemented Pokémon Appraisal: Trainers will now be able to learn about a Pokémon’s attack and defense capabilities from their Team Leader (Candela, Blanche or Spark) to determine which of their Pokémon have the most potential for battle.

• We are still working hard on several new and exciting features to come in the future of Pokémon GO.

• Minor bot fixes

The Pokémon GO team

Trainers,

After reviewing many reports of in-game cheating, we have started taking action against players taking unfair advantage of and abusing Pokémon GO. Moving forward, we will continue to terminate accounts that show clear signs of cheating.

Our main priority with Pokémon GO is to provide a fair, fun, and legitimate game experience for all players. If our system has determined that you cheated, then you will receive an email stating that your account has been terminated.

If you do believe your account has been terminated incorrectly, you should report it to the Pokémon GO Help Center:

https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/requests/new?ticket_form_id=233187

Trainers,

Pokémon GO has been updated to version 0.33.0 for Android and 1.3.0 for iOS devices. Below are some release notes and comments from our development team.

• Added a dialog to remind Trainers that they should not play while traveling above a certain speed. Trainers must confirm they are not driving in order to continue playing.
• Made improvements to the accuracy of a curveball throw
• Fixed a bug that prevented ”Nice,” ”Great,” and “Excellent” Poké Ball throws from awarding the appropriate XP bonuses.
• Fixed achievements showing incorrect Medal icons.
• Enabled the ability for Trainers to change their nickname one time. Please choose your new nickname wisely.
• Resolved issues with the battery saver mode on iOS and re-enabled the feature.
• Added visuals of Team Leaders Candela, Blanche, and Spark.
• We’re currently testing a variation of the “Nearby Pokémon” feature with a subset of users. D...

Trainers in 15 new countries and regions across Asia and Oceania can now officially download Pokémon GO from the Play Store or App Store. Discover Pokémon in the world around you!

Countries and regions include: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau

Things have been pretty crazy here at Niantic over the last few weeks but despite all of the ups and downs we get up every day inspired by the original goals of Niantic -- to create an experience that encourages healthy outdoor exploration and social gameplay. Every positive story we hear (like this one from the UK) motivates us to keep working to support the game and continue the roll-out. Running a product like Pokémon GO at scale is challenging. Those challenges have been amplified by third parties attempting to access our servers in various ways outside of the game it...

Trainers,

As many of you know, we recently made some changes to Pokémon GO.

We have removed the ‘3-step’ display in order to improve upon the underlying design. The original feature, although enjoyed by many, was also confusing and did not meet our underlying product goals. We will keep you posted as we strive to improve this feature.

We have limited access by third-party services which were interfering with our ability to maintain quality of service for our users and to bring Pokémon GO to users around the world. The large number of users has made the roll-out of Pokémon GO around the world an... interesting… challenge. And we aren’t done yet! Yes, Brazil, we want to bring the game to you (and many other countries where it is not yet available).

We have read your posts and emails and we hear the frustration from folks in places where we haven’t launched yet, and from those of you who miss these features. We want you to know that we have ...

Trainers,

Some iOS users might experience difficulties updating Pokémon GO from version 1.1.0 or earlier. Upon opening the Pokémon GO app, users prompted to update within the app may be redirected to an incorrect web address.

Please visit the Help Center for information on how to resolve this issue.

Trainers,

We are excited to share a few more details with you regarding Pokémon GO:

1. Central and South America - Break out the sneakers and Poké Balls, and get ready to explore the world around you. We are excited to officially be putting Pokémon GO in the hands of our Latin American fans, visitors, and the athletes in Rio!

2. We have been hearing the feedback loud and clear about the removal of the Battery Saver mode on iOS devices. We had removed this feature as several users were experiencing it to be buggy, but we are fairly confident that a fix for this should roll out within the next several days.

3. A few of our Legendary Pokémon had erroneously been granted to some Trainers. Thanks to the help of several of our Trainers, we were able to locate them and bring them home safely.

We have been working long hours to fix many other bugs and bring some exciting new features to Pokémon GO in the futur...

As of tonight, Trainers living in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland are able to download Pokémon GO from the Play Store or App Store.

Five years ago, Niantic set out on a path to change the way people interact with the world around them by creating the world’s first “real world gaming” platform. By exploiting the capabilities of smartphones and location technology and through building a unique massively scalable server and global location dataset, we have helped users all around the world have fun, socialize, and get more fit as they play and explore. Ingress, our first “real world” game, has given millions of players an entirely new way to see the world around them.

Those players have coalesced into an amazing global community where players compete, collaborate, and celebrate in more than 200 countries around the world. Some have literally traveled to the ends of the earth in their quest to help their faction control the world. It’s the passion of this community that inspires us to come to work every day to create new experiences.

Which brings us to our next adventure together. W...

Our team has been making the most of the sunny California weather by walking long distances and enthusiastically testing all of the refinement and new features in Pokémon GO. Many of these refinements have been inspired by feedback received from our field testers in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and United States. Thank you for testing the app and for giving us such great feedback.

We have a few exciting updates to share. We’ve added a new Camera feature that enables Trainers to take photographs of their wild Pokémon encounters. Now you can take a photo of Squirtle next to that scenic lake or Ivysaur hanging out by the park. The photos will be saved to your phone’s camera roll to share with whomever you’d like. We can’t wait to see the varied environments in which trainers will find wild Pokémon.

We’re also thrilled to announce that Pokémon GO’s all-new music track is composed by GAME FREAK’s Junichi Masuda. We've been working closely with Masuda-san ...

It’s getting closer. It’s been sort of like making a big meal for your friends or family. We have been sweating the details in the kitchen and now we are anxious and excited to share our creation with you.

Some of you have been in the kitchen with us. You’ve have done a great job of guiding us so far. Across Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Pokémon GO field testers have been collecting and battling with impressive regularity and we’re learning a lot from them. And today, we’re expanding that field test to the United States to get more feedback to improve the game.

It’s been exciting to hear stories from our testers as they explore the world around them in their quest to collect Pokémon and recently we’ve added a ton of new features to expand gameplay even further. Trainers can now help Pokémon evolve, opening up a whole new area of gameplay. Trainers can also find and collect Pokémon Eggs in addition to fully grown Pokémon. Trainers will get a go...