Pokémon Go’s regular AR mode scrapped to make interacting with buddy ‘mons easier

Pokémon Go has bid farewell to its “regular” AR mode, embracing its advanced AR+ mode as the only option available to players. According to Niantic, this unanticipated update means players are no longer required to use AR in some crucial situations—but at what cost?

As explained in a support release, Pokémon Go’s new update adds different ways to use AR in the game, according to updates made to AR technology. This includes the following:

1. Certain wild Pokémon encounters, such as Mew and Celebi no longer require AR to be enabled.
2. Taking photos of your Buddy Pokémon requires AR enabled on your device and within Pokémon Go. That said, you can disable AR entirely and still interact with and take snaps of your Buddy Pokémon against a static background.
3. If you want to take photos of Pokémon you previously caught using Go Snapshot, you must enable AR. This applies to any ‘mon in your storage but not your Buddy Pokémon. 
4. If your device doesn’t support AR, you can disable AR to take photos of a wild Pokémon against a static background.

As you may note, the update looks fair enough for people who don’t use AR to play the game. The support release doesn’t explicitly mention the removal of regular AR mode, but players realized that the option to use it was missing soon after the update dropped. 

Interestingly, though, Niantic Support on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that players should be able to switch between both modes by enabling AR Encounters from the in-app Settings. This begs the question, did Niantic actually remove the regular AR mode, or is it a bug? 

Unfortunately, dedicated Pokémon Go players loved using the regular AR mode to fast catch ‘mons, check shiny types, and farm items during events, all while sticking to a lighter alternative of AR+. A lot of players don’t have devices that can handle the AR+ mode’s demands, leading to performance issues.

While the update is meant to add more ways for players to enjoy Pokémon Go without AR and many don’t mind the changes, a significant section of the community isn’t happy—and we don’t know if Niantic cares.