Pokemon Go has somehow maintained a level of popularity ever since its launch in 2016, though the ecstasy has faded significantly. Developer Niantic is trying its level best to accelerate the momentum with a new update that will allow you to progress in the game even when you’re not playing. A new feature called “adventure sync,” which records your steps in the background will “soon” be available to the users. This new feature is also supposed to be connected to Healthkit in iOS and Android’s Google Fit.
Adventure Sync is of great help for activities which required walking data previously, like hatching eggs or receiving a candy from other Pokemon Go user, which was only tracked when your phone was awake. Now, such activities will be possible without even launching the game, thus saving data as well as battery. Pokémon GO exhibits a battery saver mode already, which significantly softens the display and eliminates all visual elements from the screen as long as the phone isn’t being used actively.
Despite such efforts, all the additional elements of the game were still running (and using power) in the background, ready to be seen as soon as the user raises their phone, which did no good to the battery. The new feature, however, would certainly require an access to the user’s location, which will incur some battery loss, but as you can enable or disable Adventure Sync according to your wish to make progress in the game, you can control your battery expenditure.
Adventure Sync will deliver a weekly summary, where you can see your Incubator and Candy progress as well as important activity statistics. Check in via your Trainer Profile to see the number of kilometers recorded for the week. Earn rewards each week for each milestone you cross, and receive push notifications when your Buddy Pokémon has found a Candy or when an Egg is about to hatch! – Pokemon Go blog post
Towards the end of last year, Niantic revealed that it was moving all of its location-based AR games – comprising of Pokémon Go, Ingress, and an upcoming Harry Potter game (Excited!) – to the same platform thus enabling them all to utilize the same features. Adventure sync can be seen as one of the first major features to take advantage of this.
Niantic says that the feature is “first being implemented in Pokémon Go,” to which it adds “we’re looking forward to finding new and exciting ways to implement it in our other games in the future”, which substantiates our doubt.
In the more recent content-oriented news, the star of the next Community Day in Pokémon GO has been announced by Niantic, taking place on November 10. On that day, there will be an increased chance of catching Cyndaquil, a creature introduced with Pokémon Gold and Silver, much like the Chikorita featuring in September’s event. Additionally, players will be able to get twice as much XP and Stardust for catching a Pokémon.
