Pokémon GO is rolling out the Explorer Gadget: a built-in feature that keeps catching Pokémon and spinning PokéStops while your phone stays in your pocket - no Pokémon GO Plus + required.
What the Explorer Gadget is
The Explorer Gadget is not an accessory you buy. It is a Key Item that lives inside the game, available to every Trainer at level 20 and higher. Switch it on and it will attempt to catch nearby Pokémon and spin nearby PokéStops while Pokémon GO is closed or not actively open on your device.
One important caveat up front: it only throws regular Poké Balls. No Great Balls, no Ultra Balls.
The gadget is not an idle mode. Niantic's Help Center is explicit: you must keep exploring the world while carrying your device for the Explorer Gadget to operate fully.
How to switch it on
- Tap the Explorer Gadget icon at the top right of your Map View, or find it in the Key Items section of your Item Bag.
- Tap Use in the window that pops up.
- Lock your screen and carry on. Tap the icon again at any time to pause and resume it.
Next time you open the game you get a summary of what it did: which Pokémon were caught, how many, and how many PokéStops were spun. That list is sorted newest to oldest and only shows the catches the gadget made for you.
What it will not do
- It skips Pokémon you have never registered. Anything not yet in your Pokédex is left alone, so a genuine new entry is still yours to catch by hand.
- New forms are the exception. Once you have caught one form of a species, the gadget will go after the others. The Help Center example: catch a Pom-Pom Style Oricorio and it will still throw at Baile, Sensu and Pa'u Style Oricorio.
- It leaves mighty Pokémon alone.
- It stops when you are full. No room in Pokémon Storage or your Item Bag and it stops catching or spinning respectively, with an alert on the Map View.
- It has a daily limit. How many Pokémon it can catch and how many PokéStops it can spin per day depends on your Trainer level. Once the cap is hit, it is done for the day.
Out of Poké Balls? If your bag is empty when you activate the gadget, you are automatically given some to get started. Run dry again before hitting the daily cap and you get an alert on the Map View instead.
If you already own a Pokémon GO Plus +
You do not have to unpair anything, but the Explorer Gadget and a paired accessory cannot be active at the same time. The Map View shows you which of the two is currently running.
- With an accessory paired, the Map View icon does not appear - activate the gadget from the Key Items section instead, with the accessory disconnected.
- Switch to an accessory while the gadget is running and the gadget stops for the rest of the day. You can go back to it the next day.
Not everyone has it yet
The Explorer Gadget is in a phased rollout. Niantic says it will share more about when the feature reaches everyone at a later date, so if the icon is missing from your Map View, that is why - nothing to fix on your end.
Sources: Pokémon GO - The Explorer Gadget Debuts! and the official Pokémon GO Help Center article.