'Pokemon Go' cheats, tips: Buddy feature coming soon; use Magisk to play 'Pokemon Go' on rooted Android phone

Niantic will soon release the "Pokemon Go" update that will give the game the hotly anticipated Buddy Pokemon feature.

Over the weekend, Niantic announced via Facebook and in a blog post on its official "Pokemon Go" website that the update, which will be version 0.37.0 for Android and version 1.7.0 for iOS, is "just around the corner."

According to Niantic, the developer and publisher of the almost-ubiquitous location-based augmented reality mobile game, the "Pokemon Go" team is hard at work updating the game and adding a bunch of new features to the app. The next big addition to "Pokemon Go" is reportedly the Buddy Pokemon.

With this new feature, "Pokemon Go" players will be able to select their favorite Pokemon from their collection and turn it into their buddy. The Buddy Pokemon will appear alongside the trainer avatar and will offer "unique in-game rewards and experiences" such as the awarding of candy for walking a certain distance together.

The update will also introduce "Pokemon Go" Plus support, make selecting smaller Pokemon easier, fix minor text issues and an error with the eggs hatching without displaying the animation, and prevent devices from hanging when users switch networks while the game is being played.

In their Facebook post, the "Pokemon Go" team assured fans that they are focused on eliminating bots and scrapers from the game. The team also reminded players that the game does not support rooted or jailbroken devices.

Nonetheless, Android Police reported that players can remedy this by using Magisk, a mod from XDA user topjohnwu. According to the website, Magisk "aims to overcome these difficulties [of systemless mods] and create a universal interface for everyone to develop and use systemless mods."

Magisk, which is a contraction of the name Magic Mask, first became popular when people found that it can circumvent the SafetyNet API and enable Android Play on rooted devices. Because the SafetyNet API is also used by "Pokemon Go," it wasn't long before players discovered that Magisk is also useful for the game.

Android Police said that to use Magisk, the device must have an unlocked bootloader. The steps for using Magisk to play "Pokemon Go" on a rooted Android device are here.