How To See If You Have The "Pokemon Go" Update

Several weeks after it was released, the augmented reality game that took over the internet (and quite possibly the world) has been updated. If you're the rare technologically challenged "Pokemon Go" player, you may be wondering how to tell if you have the "Pokemon Go" update. The newest version of the game is called 0.31.0 on Android phones and 1.1.0 for iOS. According to the official "Pokemon Go" Facebook page, the update fixes a number of issues and includes some new features. Move stats during battle have been adjusted for some Pokemon — the Independent notes that this should "make gyms fairer" — and some of the bugs that appear during wild Pokemon encounters have been smoothed out.

The most notable addition is the ability to re-customize your Trainer avatar. Previously, you were stuck with the choices you made at the very beginning of the game, but the update allows you to change your avatar up by logging into the Trainer profile page. The game has also added extra warnings after the loading screen; in addition to the admonition to "be alert," messages urging players not to trespass or play "Pokemon Go" while driving have appeared. It may seem like common-sense stuff, but you'd be surprised at the amount of weird places "Pokemon Go" players have ended up in their quests to catch them all.

Unfortunately, other aspects of the update have been less well-received. Some players have expressed irritation that rather than fixing the buggy step counter, which gave an indication of how far away a wild Pokemon was, Niantic scrapped the feature altogether. Without the footstep counter, all you can see is that a Pokemon is somewhere in the area.

However, this is a minor annoyance in comparison to a new glitch: Some players have reported that downloading the update removes their progress entirely, starting them back at level one.

It's worth noting that the update has been around for less than a day, so Niantic hasn't had much time to address any new glitches. So how do you know if you have the update?

First, open the App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android). Select the Updates section, which can be found at the bottom of the screen on the very right. This should take you to a page with all the updates available for the apps you've downloaded. Scroll down until you see "Pokemon Go." It should be somewhere near the top, considering the update was released this morning.

Underneath the title, it says what version of the game you currently have. If you have the update, it should list versions 1.1.0 for iOS and 0.31.0 for Android. (Mine hasn't updated yet.)

There you have it! Now go out and get your Ash Ketchum on.