Pokemon Go is about to undergo a huge update that will make the game a lot more dynamic around Gyms and battles, as well as introducing proper collaborative play.
Gyms are going to be shaken to the ground and redesigned to really put the emphasis on collaborative team play, giving you rewards for visiting gyms controlled by your team. Like Poke Stops, you'll be able to spin the photo disc to collect items from Gyms.
There will also be 6 permanent slots for gyms (although it's not clear if this changes as the Gym levels up), and rather than battling the controlling Pokemon in order of CP, you'll now battle them in the order that they joined the gym. That should, at least, stop the weakest always being knocked out straight away.
There will also be a restriction on the type of Pokemon in the Gym, so you can't have 6 Lapras sitting there.
Rather than the Prestige system that's been in place for the last year, Gyms will now use a motivation system. As Pokemon fight and lose, they will slowly lose motivation and their CP will dip along with it. For those who are visiting a friendly gym, you'll have the opportunity to use berries to boost those defenders and help keep the Gym for your team.
There's also going to be Gym Badges that you can collect for getting involved the Gyms, suggesting that people are currently more interested in collecting Pokemon than battling.
Looking to boost the social side of the game, there will be a new boss battle mode, called Raid Battles. This will place a powerful defender in a Gyms as an in-game event, giving people the chance to team up and take down the Raid Boss. This will let you win special items as well as give you the chance to catch those Pokemon.
You'll be able to see that a Raid Battle is about to take place, because an egg will appear at the top of a Gym, with a countdown timer. This is the countdown to the start of the battle. You'll need a Raid Pass to be able to take part and you can collect one Raid Pass a day from Gyms. You'll also be able to buy premium passes in the Shop.
As well as these in-game events, you'll also be able to create Private Raids, so that you can run these battles with your friends.
To enable this to happen Gyms will be closing, as we previously reported, while these changes take place. There's no precise timeline, but Gyms will be closing from 19 June, with a phased roll-out of the new features in the coming weeks.