Pokemon Go Plus
From Pokemon Go Wiki
Contents
General Information
Pokemon Go Plus is a watch-like, Bluetooth LE accessory for Pokemon Go. The companion device connects to your phone over Bluetooth® Smart allowing you to keep your phone in your pocket and go about your day-to-day activities while still being able to interact with PokeStops and capture Pokemon. As you pass by a PokeStop Pokemon GO Plus will vibrate and light up and alert you to the location. You’ll even be able to collect new items just by clicking the device. If there’s nearby Pokemon hiding in your area you’ll be alerted with lights and vibrations. You can catch the Pokemon with a button on Pokemon GO Plus and then continue on your way.
Go Plus allows users to perfectly integrate Pokemon Go into travel, family and fitness activities. You’ll be able to play and enjoy your walk, run, hike, park trips or visits to the library without having to look at your phone screen all the time.
Pokemon GO Plus will be available on September 16, 2016 in most countries and later in the year in a few South American territories.
Mechanics
Encountering Pokemon
When a Pokemon is nearby, the device vibrates and blinks:
- Three long vibrations to alert nearby Pokemon
- Green light for Pokemon you've caught.
- Yellow light for Pokemon you haven't caught.
Press the button to try and catch it.
Catching Pokemon
After you press the button you'll see:
- 3 vibrations to mimic Poke Ball wobble.
- At any point during those vibrations a short vibration means the Pokemon has fled.
- 5 short vibrations and multicolor lights for success.
- Red light for Pokemon that have run away.
PokeStops
When you're in range of a PokeStop, the device vibrates and its light blinks blue.
- Three pairs of short vibrations (six total) to alert
Press the button to search the PokeStop for items. The light will blink multicolor for success and shine red for out of range.
- Once pressed, A vibration for each item collected
- A long vibration if your bag is full
FAQs
- What Poke Balls does it throw?
- Only Poke Balls. It blinks red when out. It does not throw Great Balls nor Ultra Balls.
- Can I use it with my phone locked in my pocket?
- Yes! And doing so saves a ton of phone battery.
- Do you catch every Pokemon you encounter with it?
- No! Odds are still unknown but Pokemon will sometimes run.
- Does it work with Incense?
- No. Pokemon attracted by Incense does not appear on Go Plus.
- Do Lure Module Pokemon appear?
- Yes! You can catch them on Go Plus.
- How does its GPS tracking work?
- The device pairs via BlueTooth LE, which apparently is able to enable your phone to keep 'accurate enough' GPS tracking in a low-power (locked) state. A blue 'Location services in use' bar appears at the top of the phone on iOS when paired and in background mode.
- What is Pocket Mode?
- That means you can lock your phone and put it in your pocket and still interact with the world. (Even counting KMs)
- Does it work in the car?
- It has an ping interval that is too infrequent to be effective for fast car travel. It appears it simply can't detect the Pokestops/mons if you move too fast. However, use in slower vehicles or traffic seems to be relatively effective.
- How much Cellular Data does it use?
- In a dense area, PoGo+ uses around 1 MB per hour of data, significantly less than if you were to actually play the game.
Additional Information
- Plus had no feedback for egg hatching. Egg hatched when I next checked the game.
- Tapping on an Pokemon on the phone to bring the catch screen causes the plus to disconnect from the phone.
- When Pokemon appear in cluster (I had 3 on screen at one point), there is a small delay of 1-6 seconds between catching one / it fleeing and the next one buzzing on the Plus.
- Differentiating between Pokestops and Pokemon on plus: {okestops do pattern of dual vibrate with blue light, Pokemon do pattern of single vibrate with green light.
- Successful catch feedback: 3 vibrations with blinking white light, then multicolor lights with multiple vibrations.
- Failed catch feedback: 1-3 vibrations with blinking white light, then 3 short vibrations with red lights.
- Pokestop feedback: after pressing the plus, it vibrates the number of items you got. E.g. Four vibrations = four items. Single vibration with white light if your bag is full.
- Catch time: takes about 5 seconds between pressing on the plus and a successful catch. More or less the same as after your ball hits a Pokemon in the game.
- PoGo+ can access Pokestops and catch Pokemon during phone calls and Facetime calls.
- It tracks egg / buddy distance better than the app alone.
- Letting the app run while your screen is locked saves you battery.
- It has a slightly wider pokemon range, and will often start buzzing for me before pokemon actually pop up on screen.
- If I'm traveling just below the speed cap, sometimes pokemon would be in range of the Go+ but not in the app.
- The Pokestop range is the same.
- The Go+ is affected by the speed cap when traveling. When 'going too fast', it will notify you of nearby pokemon and stops, but you will always get an error buzz when you press the button.
- After manually catching pokemon, the Go+ needs maybe 10-20 seconds to register than it's in charge again.
- If you are out of balls or bag space, you will get an error buzz, but once you sort out the space, you can try for those things again.
- It will prioritize pokemon over pokestops, but you can choose in the settings which of these two options the device will notify you of.
- The buzzing that mimics a shaking pokeball is all for show. If you're looking at the recent pokemon list while catching a pokemon with the Go+, it will show up if caught after maybe the second 'shake'.
- You can't use the Go+ when manually trying to catch something, or while battling gyms. But you can still press the green button as you tap on a different pokemon to try and catch both.
- Ditto can be caught.
- You can still use the Go+ while mass-evolving with a Lucky Egg - ie. net experience and pokemon in the background while you are busy evolving things in the menu.
- The Go+ will buzz when one of your defenders gets knocked out of a gym.
- Battery lasts about 4 weeks of pretty much continuous use but but battery indicator is not accurate. I try to estimate battery remaining with the vibration intensity.
- Signs of a dead battery: Go+ disconnects every time you try to interact with something, and eventually refuses to re-connect.
- You can click the button to check if it's still connected to your phone, but I have had several occasions where it buzzes but either isn't connected or won't interact with anything on the map. Time to reconnect or reboot the app.
- To unpair with any device (ie so you can pair with a new device), hold the button down for 5 secs until the light is solid blue. Hold the button down again for 5 secs until it buzzes to confirm that it has forgotten the stored device.
- If you're tired of your phone notifying you every time you do something with the Go+, you can turn it off in app Notification settings.
- If your game is minimized and the Plus stops recognizing stops/pokemon, open the app and see if an egg is hatching.
