Niantic has announced the April 2020 Pokémon Spotlight Hours which will take place every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. local time.

April 2020 Pokémon Spotlight Hours

Trainers, Thank you for all your feedback on Pokémon Spotlight Hour and Mystery Bonus Hour. We’re continuing to test these minievents, and we’re happy to report that we’ll be combining them into one weekly event for the month of April. We wanted to provide some information on this combined event in advance so you can prepare.

For the month of April, Pokémon Spotlight Hour will take place every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. local time, but this time around, both a Pokémon and a special bonus will be featured! For each Pokémon Spotlight Hour, you can expect a different Pokémon and bonus.

• Tuesday, April 7, 2020: Purrloin will be in the spotlight, and you’ll earn twice the XP for catching Pokémon.
• Tuesday, April 14, 2020: Magnemite will be in the spotlight, and you’ll earn twice the Candy for catching Pokémon.
• Tuesday, April 21, 2020: Wobbuffet will be in the spotlight, and you’ll earn twice the Candy for transferring Pokémon.
• Tuesday, April 28, 2020: Pidgey will be in the spotlight, and you’ll earn twice the XP for evolving Pokémon.

Please be aware of your surroundings when playing Pokémon GO. Upcoming events are subject to change. Let’s GO!

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/post/april-spotlight-hour

Niantic has announced that the first spring event for 2020 will take place from Thursday, April 9th, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. until Thursday, April 16th, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time.

Spring into spring with Pokémon GO!

Trainers, Spring has sprung for those of you in the northern hemisphere, and what better way to celebrate than with a springtime event! Buneary joins the celebration by wearing a flower crown, while egg- and spring-themed Pokémon are appearing more often in the wild! Pokémon Eggs just got eggs-tra special too, as Pichu and Togepi with flower crowns will be hatching from them.

We're continuing to prioritize Pokémon GO experiences that can be enjoyed in individual settings. You’ll receive 1/2 Hatch Distance when Eggs are placed into Incubators until further notice, so be sure to turn on Adventure Sync and make every step count.

Date + Time
From Thursday, April 9, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Thursday, April 16, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time

Features

• The following Pokémon will be appearing more often in the wild: Exeggcute, Chansey, Mareep, Marill, and Torchic. If you’re lucky, you might encounter a Shiny Exeggcute!
• Buneary wearing flower crowns and Pikachu wearing flower hats will also be appearing in the wild! If you’re lucky, you might encounter Shiny ones, too!
• The following Pokémon will be hatching more often from 2 km Eggs: Pichu wearing a flower crown, Togepi wearing a flower crown, Happiny, Munchlax, Tyrogue, Chingling, and Riolu.
• All Eggs received from Gifts during the event will be 2 km Eggs.
• There will be event-exclusive Field Research tasks that reward encounters with Alolan Exeggutor, Azumarill, and—if you’re extremely lucky—Audino!
• A Togepi-themed bag and hoodie will be available in the in-game shop!

Bonuses

• 2× Hatch Candy
• Lucky Eggs will last for one hour

And remember that as mentioned above, a 1/2 Hatch Distance bonus is ongoing until further notice—which means it will be applied during this event! Just make sure to place your Eggs into Incubators while the bonus is running.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/post/springevent2020

Niantic has announced that in celebration of Pokémon’s Grass-type month, Pokémon GO has changes to Grass-type attacks and Grass-type Pokémon in Trainer Battles.

Community Note: Trainer Battle attack updates for Grass-type month

Trainers, In celebration of Pokémon’s Grass-type month, we’d like to highlight some changes to Grass-type attacks and Grass-type Pokémon in Trainer Battles, along with a few other changes.

Updates to existing attacks in Pokémon GO
There have been updates to the following existing attacks in Pokémon GO.

• Bullet Seed - This Grass-type Fast Attack now generates energy more quickly.
• Energy Ball - This Grass-type Charged Attack now reaches full charge more quickly and has a chance of lowering the opponent’s Defense by one stage.
• Leaf Tornado - This Grass-type Charged Attack now has a chance of decreasing your opponent’s Attack by two stages.
• Ancient Power - The damage that this Rock-type Charged Attack deals has been decreased in Trainer Battles.
• Silver Wind - The damage that this Bug-type Charged Attack deals has been decreased in Trainer Battles.
• Ominous Wind - The damage that this Ghost-type Charged Attack deals has been decreased in Trainer Battles. It also reaches full charge less quickly.

These changes will make Ancient Power, Silver Wind, and Ominous Wind more strategically similar to other moves that affect stats but with higher risk for the higher reward offered by these moves.

Pokémon that can learn more attacks
The following Pokémon will be able to learn attacks they couldn’t before.

• Bellossom: Bullet Seed - The combination of this Grass-type Fast Attack with Bellossom’s Grass-type Charged Attack Leaf Blade makes Bellossom a powerful option as a Grass-type lead.
• Jumpluff: Aerial Ace - Pairing the Flying-type Charged Attack Aerial Ace with the Grass-type Fast Attack Bullet Seed allows Jumpluff to use Charged Attacks more quickly.
• Ludicolo: Energy Ball - This attack reaches full charge faster than Solar Beam, giving the Carefree Pokémon access to a different Grass-type Charged Attack to use with different play styles. Energy Ball could pair well with Bubble, one of Ludicolo’s Fast Attacks!
• Cradily: Bullet Seed - This Grass-type Fast Attack will charge up Cradily’s Charged Attacks faster.
• Sunshine Form Cherrim: Fire-type Weather Ball - This Fire-type Charged Attack is fitting for a Pokémon that appears when it’s sunny out.
• Tangrowth: Rock Slide - Tangrowth can continue having a dominating lead against Kyogre and Groudon in Master League while making the Flying-type Pokémon often used to counter it more dependent on Protect Shields.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/combatrebalance-april2020/

Niantic has announced the details for the April Fool 2020 event which takes place from Wednesday, April 1st, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Tuesday, April 7th, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time

Tricky Pokémon event starts soon!

Trainers, Do you consider yourself a prankster? Do you like how Foongus tricks Pokémon into thinking it’s a Poké Ball? Do you love how Sudowoodo mimics a tree to avoid being attacked? This April we are celebrating Tricky Pokémon with some well-known pranksters and masters of disguise will be making an appearance!

Date + Time
From Wednesday, April 1, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to Tuesday, April 7, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time

Features

• Pokémon known to be pranksters and masters of disguise will also be appearing more often in the wild, such as Gastly, Haunter, Voltorb, Sudowoodo, Aipom, Croagunk, and Foongus. If you’re lucky, you might encounter a Shiny Sudowoodo or a Shiny Croagunk!
• Stunfisk, the Trap Pokémon, will make its Pokémon GO debut! For the duration of the event, Stunfisk will be available as Field Research task reward encounters and—if you’re extremely lucky—in the wild.
• After the event ends, Stunfisk will no longer hatch from 5 km Eggs. You’ll be able to encounter Stunfisk as Field Research task reward encounters or, if you’re very lucky, in the wild.
• The following Pokémon will be hatching more often from 5 km Eggs: Aipom, Wynaut, Bonsly, Croagunk, and Stunfisk.
• Event-exclusive Field Research tasks will be available. Depending on the task, you might receive a reward encounter with a Sudowoodo, Croagunk, or Stunfisk!
• Take a snapshot and see who appears!
• Ditto will be appearing more frequently in the wild during the event, so be sure to catch Pokémon that Ditto are known to transform into! We also have reports of Ditto transforming into more Pokémon species than before, and it seems this phenomenon will persist after the event ends.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/post/trickypokemon2020/

Niantic has announced that they have temporary changed the Gym interaction distance which has been doubled.

Temporary changes to Pokémon GO: Gym interaction distance has been doubled

Trainers, As we develop ways to team up in Raid Battles from home, we’ll be making a temporary change to Gym interaction distance.

The distance from which you can interact with Gyms has been temporarily doubled, allowing you to be farther from Gyms and other Trainers as you challenge Raid Bosses. This change also allows you to spin Photo Discs at Gyms if you are within the doubled distance; however, it will not change the distance required to spin Photo Discs at PokéStops.

As we continue to prioritize updates to Pokémon GO features and experiences that make the game more accessible and enjoyable, be sure to follow us on social media, opt in to receive push notifications, and subscribe to our emails to stay updated on these temporary changes and more in the coming weeks.

Source: https://pokemongolive.com/en/post/gyminteractionupdate-20200331/

Niantic has announced that they are doing temporary changes to Pokémon GO as people around the world won't be traveling as much due to the COVID-19 virus spreading around the world. Pokémon GO will now be a lot easier to play at home without having to go anywhere.

Embracing real-world gaming from home

Dear Niantic community,

We are reaching out to extend our best wishes for your wellness at this time of unprecedented challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased physical and mental strain can have a lasting impact on people, and we're here for you.

But the world has changed, so what can we do?

We created Niantic with a mission to help people get outside, exercise, and explore the world, with the ultimate goal of helping people connect with others. Today we support a global community of hundreds of millions of people who look to our games for regular entertainment and an opportunity to get outside and connect with friends.

We have always believed that our games can include elements of indoor play that complement the outdoor, exercise and explore DNA of what we build. Now is the time for us to prioritize this work, with the key challenge of making playing indoors as exciting and innovative as our outdoor gameplay.

We are adding to our product roadmap so we can enable more ways to play inside and around the home in the coming days and weeks, when the world needs it most.

While it’s impossible to predict when and how the situation with COVID-19 will evolve globally, we’re going to make the following changes to our games and live events:

• Exercise: you can track your steps indoor with Adventure Sync so activities like cleaning your house and running on a treadmill count toward game achievements. We’re going to make improvements to Adventure Sync so it works even better with indoor movement and activities.
• Social: we’re enhancing our in-game virtual social features to enable players to stay in touch when they can’t meet in real life. You’ll soon be able to team up with friends and take on Raid Battles together in Pokémon GO from the comfort of home.
• Explore: we’re also looking into how we can help players virtually visit and share memories about their favorite real-world places, until they can once again visit them in person.
• Live Events: we're re-imagining what it means to participate in a Niantic live event this summer, and putting our creative energy towards bringing the excitement directly to your home. That means we're working on an entirely new way to enjoy Pokémon GO Fest. More details coming soon!

As our community knows, we’ve already made a number of changes to adapt to the current environment where group play is no longer possible and outdoor activity may be restricted.

We just launched a new form of gameplay in Pokémon GO called GO Battle League that you can play from anywhere in the world, including at home. We reduced the walking requirements for GO Battle League from 3 km to zero and introduced deeply discounted Incense and Poké Balls so people can catch Pokémon without traveling far. Gifts have more useful content and we increased storage so you can send and receive more gifts.

In areas where it is permitted by local authorities, outdoor walks, practiced with proper social distancing, will continue to be a great way to contribute to physical and mental well being and you'll still be able to play our games while you do that. The changes we are making offer an alternative when that’s not possible.

We look forward to the day when we can return to the familiar places we dream about and once again safely play together with family and friends. When the world is ready for that, we’ll be ready too.

Source: https://nianticlabs.com/blog/stay-safe/