Pokémon GO allows you to walk and play with your Pokémon unlike ever before — putting your Pokepals in the real world with AR features. It’s the big selling point for Pokémon fans, and the AR features in Pokémon GO are about to get a lot better. Available in early June, the new Reality Blending and PokeStop Scanning features will be rolling out to select players — and only the newest phones will be able to handle Reality Blending.
Reality Blending makes your interactive AR experience more realistic, by simulating your Pokémon’s real location in the AR space. If you walk around a tree, your Pokémon will appear behind the tree. If they’re behind a fence, you’ll see the Pokémon realistically appear on your screen as if it’s behind a fence. No more Pokémon floating on a screen, now they’ll interact and exist in your environment.
This isn’t the only new feature incoming. Pokestop Scanning is a new opt-in feature that only high-level players will be able to access. Below, I’ll explain what both of these features are (Reality Blending & Pokestop Scanning), and how you can access them.
More Pokémon GO guides:
All The Shadow Pokémon You Can Catch (So Far!) | Full List | How To Catch (And Purify) Shadow Pokémon | Capture Guide | How To Fight Team Rocket GO | Invasion Event Guide | How To Fight Rocket Leader Giovanni | Legendary Shadow Pokémon Guide | How The Buddy System Works | How To Earn Buddy Hearts Easily | How To Catch New Unova Pokémon | Trade Evolutions Guide | How To Trade & Evolutions List
Reality Blending – How To Access
Reality Blending is an advanced AR feature, simulating the location of your Pokémon more than ever. With Reality Blending enabled, foreground objects can block visibility of your Pokémon — like they’re really behind a tree! Only new phones will have this feature.
- Phones Confirmed To Enable Reality Blending: Samsung Galaxy S9, Samsung Galaxy S10, Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 4
Niantic states that this feature will roll-out to more types of phones in the future.
PokeStop Scanning – How To Access
The developers behind Pokémon GO — Niantic — want a better picture of PokeStops, and to do that, a new scanning feature will roll-out to high level players in early June. To build a full 3D map of the area around PokeStops, you’ll be able to take video and send it directly to Niantic, where they’ll use it to create a more detailed global map.
- How To Access PokeStop Scanning: Level 40 players will be prioritized for this feature first in early June. Lower level players will eventually be able to participate.
If you opt-in to this feature, you’ll be encouraged to take video of PokeStops or Gyms from as many angles as possible. The videos only need to be 30 seconds long — this isn’t so much a new feature as a way for players to help build a more advanced AR experience in the future.
And that about covers the new features coming to Pokémon GO. Both of these features are very optional — and pretty cool. Both features should be rolling out right now, so be on the lookout if you qualify.