Pokemon Go News: How To Use iOS AR Mode, Android Update Coming?
Developer Niantic announced Wednesday that the new Augmented Reality Plus (or AR+) feature would come to “Pokemon Go” in an update later this week. In a blog post on Niantic’s website, the company said the popular pocket monster capturing mobile game’s newest feature would only work on devices running iOS 11, with iPhone 6s being the oldest model of iPhone to support AR+. So, how does it work and when is it coming to Android?
The answer to the first question is quite simple. To turn on AR+, players have to flip a switch at the top right corner of the screen in the game’s default AR view. Doing so will change it to AR+, a new mode in which the game’s augmented reality features are heavily expanded, bringing a wealth of gameplay changes to the massive mobile game.
Instead of simply floating at a fixed range in front of players, Pokemon in AR+ will be locked to a point in the environment, as if they were actually there. That means players can now get closer or farther away, which will of course lead to plenty of impressive new screenshots. As far as new gameplay mechanics go, Pokemon in AR+ have an awareness system in place, meaning players can now sneak up on them, or risk scaring them away by approaching too quickly. Doing so will net players an expert bonus if and when they catch said Pokemon. In AR+, Pokemon can also hide behind bushes.
Regarding an Android release, it is reasonable to assume the feature will be available to all players at some point, but there is no fixed date on that yet. Pokemon Go restricted this to iOS for the moment because Apple’s ARKit development tools have been available to developers for some time now, while Android’s ARCore tools are not finalized, according to The Verge. It sounds like Android owners will not be locked out of AR+ forever, but their experiences may vary depending on which phones they use, per International Business Times’s earlier report on the feature.
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