"The Silph Road's In-Depth APK Teardown of v0.125.1 is complete! Healthkit & Google Fit, (Android!) Smart Watches, Bluetooth Fitness Trackers, the Poké Ball Plus, and 9 Smaller Changes!"

#PokemonGO: Time for another APK teardown, travelers! The Silph Road team has taken an in-depth look through the night looking at v0.125.1 which began propagation on the Play Store a few hours ago.The previous APK update brought Gen IV species and AR+ support on Android and in the two weeks since, we've had multiple in-game events and bonuses. (October got a lot more exciting than we'd expected!) Then on Thursday this past week, Niantic announced 'Adventure Sync' was coming to Pokemon GO, without sharing a release timeline.Let's see what this update has included under the hood this time!Backend & Platform UpdatesAs is tradition, let's begin with the smaller 'invisible' tweaks to performance, Niantic's platform, and the networking libraries:1. Networking (RPC) UpdateNiantic has continued to update their RPC library for months, and v0.125 is no exception. This version extends the RPC library to add listeners and notifiers for "downstream actions" as well as new client ping actions (typically for testing networking connections/speeds) called PING_ASYNC and PING_DOWNSTREAM. Whether these are listening to server-instigated actions or something else (e.g. peer-to-peer) is unclear. A new event called DOWNSTREAM_ACTION_EVENT was also added.Thus far, we have not observed a noticeable impact from the myriad networking library evolutions observed in recent APK updates. Whether this means the library's updates are not ready for use in production or they are possibly simply part of Niantic's shared codebase between Ingress/PoGO/Wizards has yet to be seen! But we're always encouraged to see development on this front continuing - especially with the promise of PvP looming in the future.2. Pokemon GO+ TweaksA small change to the GO+ connection code has appeared. A metadata attribute called FinishStartingSession has been added, seemingly connected to the Bluetooth pairing process, and we're curious to see if this may impact a glitch where the peripheral hangs while connecting. Additionally, a new PgpDeviceService has been added alongside the new metadata attribute (which will make more sense after reading #10 below!).Keep an eye out for any improvements to GO+ connectivity, travelers!3. SuperAwesome Parent VerificationOur travelers with younger children may be interested to know that further tweaks have appeared for SuperAwesome-authenticated accounts. This update brought a new 'IsParentVerified` attribute, which may refer to the GDRP-encouraged practice of obtaining 'verifiable' parental consent. Here's a little more detail on this for your reading pleasure.4. Garbage Removal (Memory) TweaksNew garbage removal functions have appeared called CleanupAllGarbage and garbageRemovalPaused, the latter of which is seemingly tied to a new OnHighPerformanceModeChanged event.For our non-technical travelers, garbage removal in programming refers to 'releasing' or freeing up memory used by assets that are no longer needed - and can help improve app performance and avoid "out of memory" crashes!Bug Fixes & Quality of Life UpgradesA few changes have been included on the bugs & QoL front as well, travelers. See if you can spot any differences in the following:5. "High-Res" Avatar TexturesIt appears that in some situations, higher resolution textures may now be employed to make trainer avatars look a little nicer. Several pieces of metadata involving this change refer to the conditional new HighResTexture - all involving avatar display.6. PokeBall & Catch "Bullseye" TweaksThough we doubt this change will alter the physics of throwing/catching mechanics, two new 'states' have been encoded more explicitly for Poke balls: idle and breakout. This may be an attempt to resolve a glitch in the catching flow.Perhaps more interestingly, however, the bullseyeCollider metadata attribute has been removed and replaced with a bullseyeBaseRadius and BULLSEYE_PLANE_EPSILON attribue. This reflects a tweak in how PokeBall collisions are handled and scored.7. Lucky Pokemon Backgrounds Fixed (Again)Soon after Lucky Pokemon appeared in all their glittery glory, their extra golden particle effects unfortunately didn't play nicely with the standard background images and effects on the Pokemon details screen. A patch followed soon after to improve this, and it appears an additional tweak was added in v0.125 to further help these particle effects get along. See if you can spot the difference!8. PokeStop Submissions - Map Marker Placement FixesThe PokeStop submission UI has received a small update to the map marker placement UI. For those involved in the PokeStop submission program already, take a look!New & Upcoming FeaturesAlright, with those out of the way, it's time to look to the future!9. Healthkit & Google Fit Integration: Adventure Sync!This awesome feature reveal dropped Thursday - and metadata and assets to make this a possibility are definitely the major headliner in this APK version's changes, bringing major new back-end libraries of myriad functionalities.In short, this feature will allow Pokemon GO to tap into the existing health/fitness APIs on Android and iOS to credit you for certain physical activities! Here's what we see:Permissions:In order to get credit for activity via HealthKit or Google Fit, the Pokemon GO app will need permissions to run background services on your mobile platform's operating system. From what we can make out, it may require background location permissions and your OS's fitness API permissions.Notifications:It appears that push notifications will be shown for:EggHatchBuddyCandyFoundWhat Activities 'Count'Fitness data is retrieved by/sent to the app in what are called Fitness Samples in the mobile SDK jargon. These samples are basically timestamped pieces of fitness data, and can come in several types. Here are the types we see evidence of support for in the upcoming integration:DistanceWalkedMetersStepCountCaloriesBurnedKcalsExerciseDurationMiWheelchairDistanceMetersWheelchairPushCountRemember, not all of these are necessarily expected to be implemented into production, but we at least know the app is hard-coded to accept fitness samples with these 6 types. Notably, the journal entry for Fitness logging still only has one field for DistanceWalkedKm. Hypothetically, this could simply be a catch-all field that incorporates steps, etc. But it may also indicate that only distances moved will count. Time will tell, but we're crossing our fingers for support for multiple of these activity types!Weekly Rewards & ReportsFor more info about the Fitness feature's rewards and the upcoming 'Fitness Report' UI, check the v0.119.5 APK teardown where these first appeared!10. New Devices Support: Smart Watches & Other Bluetooth Peripherals!This was a rather complicated breadcrumb trail to make sense of, travelers, as several naming conventions collide in the APK here. However, what follows is our best, educated guess at what the APK's many changes here mean for the future:Smart WatchesUntil this update, the Pokemon GO+ was the only Bluetooth peripheral supported in the APK. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch app was a 'watch version' of the Pokemon GO app that ran on a separate operating system (WatchOS) and relied on a paired mobile phone app.It looks like things are about to change.The GO+ Bluetooth library appears to have now been broken into three distinct services:PgpDeviceService (the Pokemon GO Plus)FitnessDeviceService (brand new)WatchDeviceService (brand new)Smart WatchesIt's still very unclear whether Android smart watches will receive a full replica of the Apple WatchOS app - or if they'll simply be leveraged for fitness data tracking. But it is our initial impression after reviewing the evidence that non-WatchOS smart watches may function very similarly to the GO+ device. We'll be watching this with great interest for our travelers sporting Android Wear watches!Other Bluetooth PeripheralsIt appears that the Bluetooth connection code has been extended to incorporate support for several new things:Connection Authorization via Certificate verificationSending two Fitness metrics: CaloriesBurned and ExerciseTimeMsAnd curiously, what looks like a newly added ability to detect Legendary Pokemon alongside standard Nearby or UncaughtPokemon (which have long been delineated on the GO+ via green and yellow lights, respectively)This is a very interesting turn of events. We expected a new device ID to be added in preparation for the PokeBall Plus (the upcoming, GO-compatible peripheral for Pokemon Let's Go). But the ability to send fitness data is supported by other APK additions referring to 'fitness devices' as well.It appears the Bluetooth library may have the potential to become a Swiss army knife for peripherals - supporting both the PokeBall Plus and potentially various certified fitness trackers.We're also very curious why the Bluetooth peripherals would need the ability to send or receive a 'Legendary' request. To date, no legendaries have been encounterable in a situation where peripheral use would be possible.Admittedly, this is a very small bread crumb. (But... I'd bet a Dr Pepper that we see a Meltan/Melmetal experience in 'Let's GO' (or even GO?) that involves peripherals in some fashion.)11. Multi-User Passcode Redemption AddedPasscodes have been available in-game for a long while - but apparently a new error code has just been added called OVER_PLAYER_REDEMPTION_LIMIT indicating certain passcodes may be redeemable multiple times. Interesting...And you've made it to the end, travelers!For the first time, Pokemon GO is about to get proper background tracking support - something many on the Road have longed for since before launch.We have high hopes for the implementation, and would love to see additional fitness types (like bicycle riding) receive support in-game for the 'adventures outdoors' Niantic is focused on advocating. Now that the Pokemon GO client can remain fully closed during these 'higher risk' outdoor fitness activities, perhaps liability may be sufficiently reduced such that we can see this happen. At any rate, we're crossing our fingers and are happy to see the momentum.Now, to quickly recap what was not added in this APK version: no new moves, cries, species entries or forms were added.Finally, as we wrap up and (finally) head to bed, one personal aside from myself:We've had nearly ten thousand new faces join us since our last teardown 2 weeks ago. (!) To everyone new to the Road: welcome! I'd invite you and our veteran travelers alike to join us in helping keep the Silph Road a place to learn and enjoy this game together.You should know: snark, elitism, and rudeness have no place here! If you see this happening on our boards, please report the offending comment and we'll quickly help relocate the offending visitor to a new community. Ain't nobody got time for knuckleheads here.The Silph Road team founded the Road out of nostalgia and the love of Pokemon to be a rather unique community among gaming forums - and together our travelers have done remarkable things. I invite you to join us in helping foster a culture of helpfulness, knowledge-sharing, and friendliness. It only takes a few friendly comments to make a whole board awesome. :)Travel safe,- Executive Dronpes - via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2CIOpAo