pokemon-go-android-wear

Apple users are rejoicing over the announcement that Pokémon GO will be coming to the Apple Watch early this month. But Android fans should not despair as there has also been evidence that Pokémon GO for Android Wear is under development and we may see a release sooner rather than later.

Evidence Suggests…

Our trusty tech wizards over at PokémonGOHub have used 7zip, dex2jar and jd-gui to unpack, de-compile and inspect, respectively, the latest patch (version 0.37.0). And they have found that:

  • Android app contains a whole new pokemongoplus project referencing Pokemon GO implementation on Android Wear
  • The code implementation is marked as complete and release ready
  • Android Watch will also use Bluetooth to communicate with your Android Smartphone
  • The communication between the smartphone app and your Android watch is encrypted (AES). AES stands for Advanced Encryption Standard and it is considered safe from real time decryption. It is widely used, secure and easy to implement. Kudos to Niantic for keeping our data safe!
  • Pokémon GO Plus works in the background – it is not required to keep the smartphone app opened while playing on the watch
  • A variety of Android Wear devices smart watches are supported – the code scans for watch characteristics and adapts accordingly
  • Some Android Wear devices work with iOS also. The data mined implementation suggest you’ll be able to use an Android smartwatch and pair it with iOS

What this means is that we can expect a swift release for Android Wear once Niantic has quality checked the code. Both iOS and Android users can expect the release for their watches as soon as the next patch for Pokémon GO rolls out.

What are the Pokemon Go Game Play available in Android Wear? 

They also discovered what you can do within your Android Wear devices like: 

  • Track and Capture Pokemon
  • Retrieve one or multiple items
  • Notify the Android app on various errors: out of Pokeballs, inventory full, etc.

From the CEO himself…

What’s more is that John Hanke, CEO of Niantic Labs confirmed at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF this month, that his team will look into bringing game to other mobile platforms which are interesting in terms of both gameplay and mobility. Asked specifically if Android Wear was on that list, he replied it’s “pretty likely,” which is as close to an official confirmation as we expect to get at this time.

john-hanke-disrupt-sf 

The game was recently announced as coming to the Apple Watch, but Hanke confirmed today that it would not be an Apple exclusive.

 

“Our whole mission as a company is to evangelize this whole concept of playing games outside, real world games,” explained Hanke in TechCrunch. “Apple Watch we think is a great vehicle for that,” he added, complimenting also the new Apple smartwatch hardware, which includes a standalone GPS and waterproofing, among other things.

 

“As other devices come on the market – if those are Android Wear devices or if they are devices from other quadrants that are interesting for gameplay and mobility, and being active – we’ll look into supporting those, too,” he said.

 

Asked specifically if Pokémon Go will come to Android Wear, Hanke replied, “I think it’s pretty likely, yeah.”

Image Source: SmartWatchCrunch and TechCrunch

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