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Putting Pikachu on your wrist: ‘Pokémon Go’ may be coming to Android Wear

By Gabe Gurwin September 12, 2016

Pokémon Go is nothing short of a worldwide phenomenon, but it appears that Niantic, the company that produced the app, is looking to get the augmented reality game into the hands of yet another group: Android Wear users.

Data miners at fansite Pokémon Go Hub were able to gather the information from the game’s latest build on Android, 0.37.0, and found a number of clues that suggest the game will soon hit Android Wear devices.

The Android game “contains a whole new ‘pokemongoplus’ project referencing Pokémon Go implementation on Android Wear,” according to the report. The device will communicate with Android phones over Bluetooth and the Android Wear version of Pokémon Go Plus will not require the full game to be open on your smartphone.

With Pokémon Go in the background, the app will still allow you to both track and capture Pokémon and get items from Pokéstops. This appears to function differently than the recently announced Apple Watch version, which will still require you to pull your phone out to actually capture new Pokémon.

The data mining also revealed that the communication between the Android Wear devices and smartphones will be encrypted via AES, or “Advanced Encryption Standard.” The data gathered also suggests that iOS users will still be able to play Pokémon Go using Android Wear, though it isn’t completely clear to what extent this will work, or if it will have the same functionality as the Android Wear-to-Android version.

The code lists the app’s build version as “release,” so we expect to hear more from developer Niantic in the not-too-distant future. If you don’t have a smartwatch, you may want to check out the dedicated “Pokémon Go Plus” device. It’s compatible with both iOS and Android and will alert you whenever you’re near either a Pokéstop or a wild Pokémon.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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