‘Pokemon Go’ Update 1.7.1 September 16th: What Did It Do?

'Pokemon Go' is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

‘Pokemon Go’ is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

A new Pokemon Go update has just been released.

Version 1.7.1 of the game hit the app stores on Friday, September 16th, to coincide with the release of Pokemon Go Plus. At the moment, the update appears to only be available for iOS, but it should be coming to Android phones shortly.

This new update seems to be intended to fix some issues related to Pokemon Go Plus. Niantic notes that 1.7.1 provides “Pokemon Go Plus stability improvement.” This may be related to a glitch some players have been reporting where the Plus has difficulty connecting to their game, bringing up this screen (via Reddit user korhojoa):

Also, many users this past week were experiencing problems where they would receive notifications related to Pokemon Go Plus when they force quit the app, even though they don’t even own Pokemon Go Plus. This appears to have been fixed in version 1.7.1. Finally, on the iPhone 5, there were some complaints that load times were much slower than usual after the most recent update, and based mostly on anecdotal evidence, things look to be functioning more smoothly now.

Niantic has added some help options for when a player first connects Pokemon Go Plus so they have a better idea of how the device works. It also seems that they’ve adjusted Plus so that players can now catch Pokemon using the device even if they have never encountered that species before. It was originally announced that Plus could only be used to catch Pokemon you’ve caught already.

Finally, the patch notes of course mention that the update includes “minor text fixes.” This sentence has been included in virtually every single update that has ever been released for the game, and because it’s so vague and unhelpful, it has been turned into something of a meme in the Pokemon Go online community.

There are often small fixes and improvements in these seemingly less important updates that don’t become clear until later, so stay tuned to find out more about what’s different in version 1.7.1. For now, here are the full patch notes from Niantic:

-Pokemon GO Plus stability improvement

-Added quick help when first connected to Pokemon Go Plus

-Minor text fixes