Pokemon Go Gains Native Refresh Rate Support on iPhone

Pokemon Go for iOS has been updated with support for higher refresh rates on compatible smartphones, bringing improved touch response to the iPhone version of the popular location-based game. The latest update to the game on the App Store now allows users to “unlock” their smartphone’s native refresh rate, for higher frames per second (FPS) while playing Pokemon Go. However, turning on the setting for native refresh rate support may result in lowered battery life, especially on older iPhone models.

The new settings to enable higher FPS in the game were spotted by The Verge on the latest version of the Pokemon Go app for iOS, but developer Niantic has not mentioned the new feature anywhere in its changelog for the new update. The setting itself is buried deep in the Advanced Settings section of the app, and the game does not inform users or nudge them to try the new feature.

The Pokemon Go app on iOS can now reportedly run at 60 FPS on iPhones, which showed visibly smoother animations in our testing on an iPhone 11. The game would previously run at 30 FPS, according to the report, so users running the game on the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max should see the biggest improvements on their smartphones thanks to their 120Hz displays.

Enabling the Native Refresh Rate support setting on an iPhone 11.

Gamers who want to try out the new setting to use the native refresh rate on their iPhone can head over to the App Store and check for updates, as the setting seems to have been enabled on version 1.191.0 of the game. After updating, here’s how you enable native refresh rate on Pokémon Go:

1. Tap the Poke ball on the main screen

2. Tap Settings

3. Scroll down and tap on Advanced Settings

4. Finally, tap on Native Refresh Rate, to see a “Native refresh rate unlocked” message and a green tick mark once it is turned on.

The new feature to enable native refresh rate support on Pokemon Go for iOS may provide visual improvements, but will almost certainly come at the expense of battery life, so users on older iPhone models or recent smartphones like Apple’s iPhone SE (2020) and iPhone 12 Mini may want to leave the setting turned off.