‘Pokemon Go’ is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)
The new Pokemon Go update has been released. Well, in theory it has, but the majority of players still don’t have it. So how can you find out when the update will actually reach you?
The first thing you should know about the Pokemon Go updates is that Niantic tends to release them in phases. That means that some players get them before others, so it’s not as if the update suddenly hits the app stores for everyone all in one go. Who receives the update when is mostly random and not dependent on location. Some updates also seem to take longer than others; with the recent buddy update for instance, Niantic announced that the feature was being released on Saturday, but it wasn’t until Tuesday and Wednesday that most people actually got it.
For iOS users, checking to see if you have the update just involves heading to the app store, going to the updates tab, and praying you see Pokemon Go there. The store should automatically refresh itself once the feature is out, but in case you want to double check, you can tap the “featured” button ten times in order to force refresh the app store. Sometimes the app store freezes up or won’t show the newest update, but this trick will completely reset it. If you don’t have the update after doing this, it’s not out for you yet.
On an Android, to manually check to see what updates are out, go to the Google Play store, hit the button with the three dots on the top right corner of the screen, and select “my apps.” From there, you’ll see the drop-down menu of all the updates you have ready to go.
But what if you don’t want to be constantly checking the app store 24 hours a day all weekend? After all, it’s a complete uncertainty when the update will actually be released for the average person. One alternative is to check out some of the Pokemon Go online communities, where fellow players are also staring at their phones to see if the new update is out. One of the best ones is the Pokemon Go community on Reddit. Rather than constantly going to the app store, you can check out that subreddit throughout the day, where there will likely be a stickied post (displayed in bold at the top of the page) when the update begins hitting more phones. You can also check the “new” tab, as once the update really gets going, you’ll almost certainly see dozens of posts with players saying that they just received it on their phone.
Alternatively, you can also set up Twitter notifications for yourself and then follow a Pokemon Go-related account, such as @PokemonGoNews. This is not the official Pokemon Go Twitter page, but it’s a fan account that usually provides helpful updates regarding the latest news in the community, such as when people are getting a new update. If you set things up on your phone so that you get a push notification whenever they tweet, you can simply wait to receive a notification that says the update has been released for more players. Here’s how you can set that up:
- Open the Twitter mobile app
- Go to @PokemonGoNews (or the account of your choice)
- Click on the settings icon
- Choose “turn on notifications”
That all being sad, you maybe shouldn’t get your expectations up too high for this update. The main feature is that it shows you where a Pokemon was captured, but unlike when thje game originally launched, players are just told this information in plain text, and it only narrows it down to the city you caught the Pokemon in.
