Pokémon Go update adds major quality-of-life improvements

An update for Pokémon Go has rolled out to mobile devices that includes a plethora of quality-of-life changes.

Some of them aren’t too noticeable without some sleuthing around, but here are some of the biggest:

You can check IVs within the app now

Before, players had to use other apps, like PokéGenie, to check the exact percentages of their Pokémons’ IVs. Now, if players use the appraisal system within the app, the team leaders will show each Pokémon’s stats on a bar and give it a star rating.

You can even tap the arrows on the left and right of the appraisal to see the next Pokémon’s stats without having to close the screen. Thank Arceus!

Pokémon will only get stars if its IV percentage is above 50. Two stars means it has about 66-80 percent perfect IVs. Three means its 82-100 percent.

You can filter your Pokémon by IV easily using simplified search filters

Pokémon Go always had search features that Niantic didn’t explicitly tell players about. For example, you can tap the magnifying glass icon at the top of your Pokémon menu and type “shiny” to only show your Shiny ’mons, or “legendary” to show all your Legendary ’mons. Simple enough.

Now you can look up Pokémon by their star rating, making it very simple to find 100 percent IV Pokémon you may have. Simply typing “4*” in the search bar will yield all of your 100 percent IV Pokémon, making it easy to spot any sleeper picks you may have missed.

Looking up “3*”, “2*,” and “1*” will also filter out your Pokémon by those IV ratings as well. The current list of search terms can be found here.

Landing curveball throws is easier on bigger phones now

Before the update, it was harder to land curveballs on phones with big screens. Now Niantic has made it easier, thanks to faster acceleration of Pokéballs and a wider frame of view. If you’ve been struggling to reach that Shuppet, it should be a bit easier now.

“New Attack” button shifted

Trainers playing on smaller phones won’t have to worry about accidentally hitting the “New Attack” button when trying to close out the window anymore. However, if you play on a bigger phone, like an iPhone XR, the button is now in the area you press to close the window. Sacrifices had to be made, I guess.

This update also laid the groundwork for Team Rocket to start appearing in the game, so keep an eye out, as we expect them to appear any day.