Niantic Dropping Apple Watch Support for Pokemon GO Next Month

Developer Niantic announced it will be droppingPokemon GOsupport for the Apple Watch support on July 1st. The company feels that the utility of the smart watch was rendered redundant by the implementation ofAdventure Syncin November of last year.

It was over two years ago thatPokemon GOreleased itsApple Watch appand while it undoubtedly had its fans, it seems the app wasn’t popular enough for Niantic to keep investing in it. With the app, players could track their steps to hatch eggs, spin Pokestops, and get notifications anytime a Pokemon was near. It was a convenient way to interact with thePokemon GOapp without constantly taking out a phone, but it also obviously required an Apple Watch.

The good news is a lot of the functionality of thePokemon GOapp for Apple Watch is already available via the Adventure Sync feature. With Adventure Sync,Pokemon GOplayers can upload their GPS tracking from both the Apple Health or Google Fit apps and gain credit for any steps and distance traveled. Granted, it doesn’t help with catching Pokemon or spinning Pokestops, but it helps with earning candy and hatching eggs. So in a way, there is still some Apple Watch functionality available toPokemon GOplayers, but only if they sync their activity with Apple Health.

Ever since thePokemon GO Plus was introduced, it seemed as though Niantic and The Pokemon Company wanted to keep the focus on its product. It may not have the variety of apps available to Apple Watch users, but the Pokemon GO Plus wristband does let players catch Pokemon and spin Pokestops without taking out their phone.

Pokemon Company also plans to introduce a new Pokemon GO Plus that tracks sleep patterns and movement to integrate with the recently announcedPokemon Sleep app/game. It’s better in their eyes to have everything integrated under an umbrella that includes its own technology, rather than to rely on outside products. Admittedly, thePokemon GOapp on the Apple Watch did not work perfectly and was pretty buggy. But those who did use the app will find support phased out within a month.