During the Apple Keynote iPhone 7 Presentation, they touched on WatchOS 3 for Apple Watch. After giving giving a few app examples, Jeff Williams also mentioned a very “special” app, Pokémon GO.
Niantic CEO John Hanke is introduced and gives a few stats on Pokémon GO before diving into the Apple Watch GO features:
- Pokémon GO has been downloaded 500 millon times around the world since early July.
- Pokémon trainers have collectively walked more than 4.6 billon kilometers while playing the game.
(Take that Michelle Obama!)
Inspired by the Pokémon GO Plus, Pokémon GO on the Apple Watch is being developed to give trainers more ways to enjoy playing Pokémon GO while not having their head buried in their phone. While it isn’t going to be a full featured version of Pokémon GO, it gets us closer to “heads up” game play vs the smartphone zombie walk.
From the main watch interface we see our eggs and how far we need to walk to hatch them. They won’t track distance towards hatching those eggs until you start your “workout” though.
From the start screen you see:
- Trainer level
- Current XP
- XP needed for next level
- Start workout button
The main screen shows us:
- km traveled
- Workout durtation
- Calories burnt
- Nearby Pokémon
A wild Snorlax appeared during the demo! However, to catch wild Pokémon you’ll need to get out your smartphone as GO on the Apple Watch does not allow you to catch Pokémon.
You will be able to Visit Pokéstops and collect items!
Medal achievements are displayed!
The all too fun egg hatching “Oh?” and hatch animation are shown on the Apple Watch. It’s unknown if you can load a new egg into an incubator or not from GO on the Apple Watch, or if you’ll need to bust out your smartphone for that.
When you end your workout, you are shown a summary screen of how far you walked, calories burned, and a list of all the items you collected! They end the presentation telling us “Pokémon GO on Apple Watch will help you to become the very best” and that it will be “shipping before end of year”.