Shiny Pokemon GO for Adventure Week update with hints at new tracking

Our report today includes info from the latest code for the Pokemon GO app – ready to roll for Adventure Week! This year's Pokemon GO Adventure Week is set to feature a set of new monsters in Shiny mode – edition, rather – one of which you might've been waiting for since the beginning! Here's a hint: This Adventure Week is about to get rocky!

In the mix for Shiny Pokemon during Adventure Week include Lileep, Cradily, Anorith, Armaldo, Onix, and Steelix. While Onix was in the game since the first day we ever played, this is the first time Niantic's released the model in its Shiny form. This Onix is rock gray in its original form, and goes all GREEN as it goes Shiny.

Steelix, on the other hand, has a bit of a reflective surface of silver in its original form, and goes Yellow in its Shiny form. This is easily one of the largest departures in Shiny form for any Pokemon – and these two are big!

As it is with all Shiny Pokemon, these monsters will only appear in Shiny form as their least-evolved form. You will not find a Shiny Steelix out in the wild – they just DO NOT exist in the wild, in this game. You'll have to find a shiny Onix and use candy to evolve to the coveted banana-colored metal hunk snake.

When does the next Pokemon GO event start?

The next event in Pokemon GO is Adventure Week 2019. You'll start to see these Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO on Tuesday 4 June at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (that's 1PM Pacific Standard Time). Adventure Week will end on June 11th, 2019, at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST.

Above you'll see all the details. You can expect your standard bonuses and new tasks you can complete to get all your candies and your pocket monsters and such. Cross your fingers for some classic Pokemon GO surprises as well – those are always welcome.

What's new in Pokemon GO?

The latest version of the app (for Android) is APK 0.145.0, and it includes some interesting bits and pieces. One of the most major additions is the Coconut! Not necessarily because it'll be a major element in the game – but because it's been a while since we've gotten a new usable item as such!

Coconut currently only appears as an "asset" in the code. You can also find "CoconutReflection" if you dig deep. Candy, too, has a few minor appearances in code changes from last time we looked. CandyColors, CandyFX, CandyColorGradient, and CandyAlphaKeys can be seen in the code.

In 2019 does Pokemon GO track my phone?

Deep in the heart of code where not many generally check, there's some information about Niantic's future tracking of user devices. It's possible Niantic's using tracked info from your device (anonymously, I'm sure), for improvements in the Ingress Engine for users everywhere. With this update, it looks like they're aiming to gain some specific device info, too.

• Store_Unset

• Store_Apple

• Store_Google

• Store_Samsung

Why store Samsung separate from Google (Android)? Think about wearables (with Tizen and etc), think about exclusive deals, think about the future! Remember that time there was a Samsung x Fortnite exclusive?

Augmented Reality Camera Angles

Also appearing are a whole bunch of camera view-related code mentions. Remember how Samsung has its own AR project called Project Whare, and Apple has ARKit, and Google has ARCore, and all support augmented reality in slightly different ways? Niantic knows this – imagine if they're using ALL the different AR API to create AR video camera action in Pokemon GO? That'd be neat, right?

Imagine if what we see above was the quality at which the actual game provided AR models to users. Augmented Reality at a level at which we've not yet seen. That's what Pokemon needs, that's what Pokemon's probably about to get.