Pokémon Goplayers who have the Apple Watch as part of their Pokémon hunting arsenal should rethink their strategy, as Niantic Labs said that the smartwatch will no longer be able to connect to the mobile game afterJuly 1.
Niantic Labs rolled outApple Watch supportforPokémon Goin December 2016, connecting the smartwatch’s fitness tracking features with the step requirements in the mobile game. Players also started receiving push notifications on their watchOS devices when they were in the vicinity of Pokémon to catch or PokéStops, when their eggs hatched, or when they received medals. However, in order for players to catch Pokémon, they still needed to launch thePokémon Goapp on their iPhone.
Starting July 1, the push notifications will no longer be available, with the connection cut off due to the presence of Adventure Sync. The feature, which was rolled out in November, integrates with Apple Health and Google Fit activity data from iOS and Android smartphones to allow the distance that players have traveled in the real world to contribute to hatching eggs and collecting candy. Apple Health willreceivepart of its data from the Apple Watch so the wearable device will still help, but just in a more seamless manner.
In most ways Adventure Syncreplicatesthe functionality of thePokémon Goapp for the Apple Watch, rendering it redundant. “We want to focus on building Adventure Sync so that Trainers will no longer have to split their gameplay between 2 devices,” Niantic Labs said.
WhilePokémon Goremains popular, fans of the franchise have a few more titles to look forward to.Pokémon SwordandShield, the next major RPG in the series, is set to release in late 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, likely in mid-November. Other planned games include a sequel toDetective Pikachufrom the Nintendo 3DS for the Nintendo Switch, sleep-tracking gamePokémon Sleepthat will be released sometime in 2020, andPokémon Masters, a mobile game that will feature all of the past and present Pokémon trainers from other games.
Pokémon Home, a cloud-based service that will allow players to transfer Pokémon fromPokémon GoandPokémon Let’s GotoPokémon SwordandShield, is also set to launch next year.
