A Pokemon GO leak has revealed that a new feature for playing with friends is in development. Pokemon GO has received numerous changes during its seven years of existence. As well as adding new features, these changes have made adjustments to make interacting with the game more interesting.

The core experience of playing Pokemon GO is for the player to explore their area and interact with Pokemon, characters, and locations that appear on the map. If players want to play Pokemon GO with other people, the main option is Raid Battle. Pokemon GO Raids are cooperative events where up to 20 players team up to defeat Raid bosses. There are different types of Raids where players face powerful Pokemon, earn rewards, and have the chance to catch the Raid Boss Pokemon. Another option for interacting with other Pokemon GO players is to join the GO Battle League, battling players in PvP matches.

Pokemod dataminers have found evidence of a new Pokemon GO feature that allows players to play with friends. Named PartyPlay, this feature is initially restricted to creating a party of four players. According to the screenshots and video shared by the dataminers, Pokemon GO players can see the location of other party members on the map. On the other hand, the feature allows players to enable/disable sharing the location and avatars, giving a certain level of privacy. While at a party, Pokemon GO players can interact with various aspects of the game such as Raids, Routes, and challenges. While other Pokemon games have co-op, it’s a feature that doesn’t yet exist in Pokemon GO.

In comments on social media, Pokemon GO players have shown interest in the feature. One player said that they would like to have the option to Trade with party members, which would be a major change to Pokemon GO‘s Trade system. Another comment expressed surprise that Pokemon GO hasn’t had a cooperative play feature like this since its launch. A third player said that they hope PartyPlay will make it possible to join players nearby, something that would help especially introverted people to ask if someone nearby is playing Pokemon GO.

This year, Niantic has added several new content features to Pokemon GO, such as Shadow Raids, a different type of Raid from those already available that offers players a bigger challenge. Another new Pokemon GO feature is Routes, which allows players to record and share their tracks with other players. There is no information on when the PartyPlay feature will be released, but players hope it will impact the Pokemon GO experience positively.

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS.