Niantic has announced that starting on Monday, June 8th, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. local time, certain Pokémon’s Alolan and Galarian forms will hatch from 7 km Eggs.

Certain Pokémon’s Alolan and Galarian forms will soon hatch from 7 km Eggs

Trainers, It appears something strange will be happening to the Eggs you can receive from Gifts—certain Pokémon’s Alolan and Galarian forms will be hatching from all 7 km Eggs! We aren’t sure how long this phenomenon will last, but we can assure you that Professor Willow is on the case.

When the Throwback Challenge event ends on Monday, June 8, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. local time, the following will be the only Pokémon hatching from 7 km Eggs until further notice.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/7kmeggs-alolan-galarian-forms/

Niantic has announced that Latias and Latios will zip back for another Special Raid Weekend event in Pokémon GO from Friday, June 12, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Monday, June 15, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time.

Latias and Latios zip back for another Special Raid Weekend event!

Trainers, The Legendary Pokémon Latias and Latios are coming back to Raid Battles for a Special Raid Weekend event! These Eon Pokémon haven’t been seen in the skies since January of this year, so be sure to catch them during this weekend before they fly off again!

Date + Time
Friday, June 12, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Monday, June 15, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time

Features

• The Legendary Pokémon Latias and Latios will be in five-star raids.

Latias and Latios are both Dragon and Psychic type, so it’ll be best to bring along other Dragon-type Pokémon, such as Rayquaza and Dialga. They are also weak to Ice-, Bug-, Ghost-, Dark-, and Fairy-type attacks, so some recommended Pokémon to round out your Raid Battle teams are Tyranitar, Togekiss, and Mamoswine.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/weekendraid2020-latias-latios-2/

Niantic has announced that adding stickers to Gifts is coming soon to Pokémon GO as well as inviting friends to raids later in June 2020.

Feature updates: Adding stickers to Gifts coming soon; inviting friends to raids coming later this month!

Trainers, More exciting changes will be coming to Pokémon GO in the coming months, and we wanted to share an early update on a couple features you can expect this summer. One is a feature that was previously announced: the ability to invite friends to remotely join you in Raid Battles! The other is a new update that’ll allow you to personalize the Gifts you send to your friends with in-game stickers!

Make your friends smile with a Gift sticker
Sending Gifts to friends just got more personalized! Want to show a friend how much you appreciate them? Soon you’ll be able to add a special sticker to the Gifts you send!

When the feature is rolled out, you’ll get a set of stickers for free! Right before you send a Gift to a friend, tap ADD STICKER and pick a sticker to attach. At launch, there will be five stickers available. You can use a sticker only once, so be sure to stock up on more by opening Gifts. In the future, you’ll be able to purchase some designs from the shop.

Invite friends to raids regardless of their location
As we continue to make changes to Pokémon GO that further adapt gameplay to individual settings, we’re excited to announce that the ability to invite friends to raids will be rolling out soon!

When this feature is available, you’ll see a + button in both public and private raid lobbies that you’ve joined in person. After tapping the + button, you’ll be able to invite up to five friends to join you. Your friends will be able to see raid invitations on their Nearby screen or in push notifications. These invitations will allow them to enter the raid lobby. Your friends will use a pass only once the battle starts, not when they join the lobby.

While the feature will be released after the highly anticipated Legendary Pokémon Reshiram has already left raids, fret not! The Vast White Pokémon will be back in raids in the future, so you’ll have another chance to face off against it and test your resolve for truth.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/raid-gift-update-2020/

Niantic has posted the release notes for the Pokémon GO version 0.177 update which was released on June 2nd, 2020.

Pokémon GO - 0.177 Release Notes

Note: For Apple Users, this release will show as version 1.143 in the App Store.

Last updated: June 2, 2020
Release notes may be posted before the release is available to all players. Please check your app store for the latest version of Pokémon GO available to you.

Updates

• GO Battle League ratings have been temporarily removed from the matchmaking screen for Trainers ranks 7 and up to discourage avoiding Battles against Trainers based on their rating. Visible ratings will return once we have a longer-term fix for this issue.
• The UI for Battle screens in Gyms & Raids and Trainer Battles has been updated to show the number of stored Charged Attacks as white rings that appear around the attack
• Apple sign-in: Apple ID can be used to sign in to Pokémon GO
• Trainers will soon be able to opt-in to a new feature called PokéStop Scan and contribute to building 3D maps of PokéStops and Gyms
• Select Trainers with specific devices will soon have access to the Reality Blending feature in AR Snapshots
• The Meltan Box can no longer be activated when an Incense is already active

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue in which tapping Fast Attacks quickly caused a delay in the next Charged Attack or switch during Battle
• Fixed an issue that caused a Trainer to softlock the app if their Pokémon fainted during an opponent’s Charged Attack while experiencing severe latency
• Fixed an issue that caused Fast Attacks against Team Leaders and Team GO Rocket to land more quickly than intended
• Fixed an issue that caused the completed research notification to pop up twice for the same research task
• Fixed an issue that caused the Team Medallion to not be purchasable in the Shop
• Fixed an issue that caused the catch ring color to change slightly when any Berry was used, even if the Berry did not increase the catch rate
• Fixed some minor layout issues that caused text to overlap with other UI elements in certain languages

Source: https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/pokemon-go/?s=release-notes-known-issues&f=0-177-release-notes&l=en&p=web

Niantic has announced that the Pokémon GO Summer Fest returns July 25th and 26th, 2020 but this year players will be able to play from home!

Summer’s Pokémon GO Fest Returns on July 25–26

In 2019, our Pokémon GO Fest lineup was our biggest celebration ever. We held events in Chicago, Dortmund, and Yokohama, bringing together 600,000 Trainers for the special summer events.

We’re bringing back Pokémon GO Fest on July 25–26 as an all-new, completely reimagined global event in a virtual format. The adventures of Pokémon GO Fest are coming direct to Trainers and neighborhoods around the world so anyone can participate from home.

Pokémon GO Fest is now a two-day experience, and Trainers can, for the first time, play on both days. Since the event is now global, we’re taking steps to make tickets available to as many Trainers as possible.

This year’s Pokémon GO Fest is designed from the ground up to connect Trainers like never before. While we’ll miss celebrating with each other in a beautiful park, we’ve come up with new ways for the community to connect and team up together that we’ll roll out during the summer. It will be an exciting weekend for the entire family, with new experiences, gameplay, and surprises throughout the event.

Check the Pokémon GO blog and Pokémon GO Fest website for more updates in the coming weeks.

–Michael Steranka, Director, Marketing & Global Live Events

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/post/pokemongofest2020

Niantic has announced two new features are coming to Pokémon GO: Reality Blending and PokéStop Scanning.

Limited release of Reality Blending and PokéStop scanning coming to AR functionality in select phones

Trainers, We have a couple of exciting features rolling out soon: Reality Blending and PokéStop scanning.

Reality Blending
Trainers have always dreamed of having their Pokémon by their side in the real world. As Pokémon GO has grown throughout the years, Trainers have been able to walk, play, and take snapshots with their Buddy Pokémon.

We are now introducing a new way for your buddy to become part of your world like never before. By taking advantage of the latest AR functionality on devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S10, Google Pixel 3, and Google Pixel 4, we are developing ways your buddy can appear more realistically within the world around you. We are excited to announce that we are testing the new Reality Blending feature in snapshots for Pokémon GO.

With Reality Blending, Pokémon will be able to move behind objects, either partially or completely. Watch your Pokémon peek at from behind a bookcase, or jump out from behind the couch! This cutting-edge AR feature will roll out for testing to a small number of random Trainers with certain Android devices, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S10, Google Pixel 3, and Google Pixel 4. We’ll then roll out Reality Blending to more devices so more Trainers can share even more experiences with their buddies in the real world!


Help us map the world in AR
At Niantic, we are working to develop a dynamic 3-D map of existing PokéStops and Gyms so we can continue to develop and refine AR features in the future. To help in this mission, we are bringing an opt-in feature to the Pokémon GO community called PokéStop Scan, which will be first available to level 40 Trainers in early June before rolling out to more players by level.

An adaptation of a feature released in Ingress, this feature will let Trainers upload videos of real-life PokéStop and Gym locations to Pokémon GO, which can help us on this mapping journey. If you opt in, you’ll be asked to record video of a PokéStop or Gym’s real-life location from as many angles as possible, up to a maximum of 10 seconds per video.

These videos will allow us to generate dynamic 3-D maps of PokéStop locations. This can give us a better understanding of how virtual objects persist and where they are in relation to one another, which will help us improve the game’s overall AR experiences. In addition, the 3-D objects allow our devices to further understand what they are looking at in order to augment reality in real time.

Pokémon Trainers will be able to contribute to building 3D maps of their favorite PokéStops and Gyms by walking around their favorite public places and recording a stream of images with their phone. Techniques such as blurring potentially recognizable objects like faces or license plates are automatically applied to information that Trainers choose to send to Niantic. Niantic does not collect or store any personal data in connection with this information and it is not tied to specific player accounts. For more information, please read our privacy policy.

While there are still a lot of challenges to tackle to improve AR, we hope these additions will help us continue to create fun and exciting ways for people to interact with the world. By bringing better interactions to AR and by making it possible for people to share the places that matter to them, we hope to create a special map of the world that inspires people to explore.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/post/realityblending-announcement