Niantic pushed an update for Pokemon Go over the weekend that scraps a couple of fairly major features, but ones that didn't work properly anyway. It also adds new, sinister but understandable warnings.

The footprint feature has never really worked since the launch of the game, so has been deleted entirely. It was meant to help you track nearby Pokemon through the number of paw prints on screen, but it was faulty from the off.

In addition, the iPhone version's battery saver feature has been eliminated. It was designed to dim the screen whenever the phone was not held up in front of a player, but numerous reports of crashing means it has been removed. It seems to still be active on the Android variant of the app.

You'll have to go back to using battery saving tips, like manually dimming the brightness and carrying a battery pack instead.

So those are the features removed. One major addition is the appearance of new safety messages whenever you start the game.

There are several messages that appear in a pop-up box, informing you not to play Pokemon Go when driving, or not to enter dangerous areas. It doesn't elaborate on what a "dangerous area" actually is, but at the warnings tie in with reports of car crashes and all manner of Pokemon Go-based mishaps that have happened in the last few weeks.

There are several other minor tweaks and bug fixes, including a little massaging of the stats of some of the evolved Pokemon. 

The update is available for download now.