Party Play

Party Play is a feature in Pokémon GO that allows a group of Trainers to to accomplish various tasks, earn special bonuses and receive rewards. A Party is composed of two to four Trainers, one of them being the host.

Details
Party sessions can be created and joined through the Party tab on the Trainer's profile page. Members of the party must be physically near each other to join, host, and stay in a party. While part of a Party, the avatars of the Party members will appear on the Map View. Party sessions last for one hour.

While in a party, Party Challenges and Party Power are activated, and the Party tab of the Trainer's profile page changes to the Activity Summary page. The Activity Summary page contains information about tasks completed and goals earned while in a party, including categories like catching certain types of Pokémon or making different types of throws. They are sorted into the following categories: Pokémon, Throws, Adventure, Battle, and General. Activities can be bookmarked to appear on the main summary page.

Restrictions

 * Accounts logged into via Pokémon Trainer Club or Niantic Kids will not have their avatar appear on others’ Map View, nor will they see other Trainers on their own Map View.
 * Party Play is available for Trainers that are Level 15 or higher. For kids accounts made via Pokémon Trainer Club or Niantic Kids, parents or guardians may opt into enabling this feature for the kids account by granting appropriate permissions.

Party Challenges
Party Challenges are extra research tasks that all members of the party can work towards and gain rewards from. Challenges are selected through a pop-up menu that appears when the party session starts and after every time a challenge is completed. Only the host can select an option from this menu.

Party Power
While in a Raid Battle with members of your party, the Party Power gauge will be activated. It slowly fills up each time a Fast Attack is used, and when full, the next Charged Attack used will deal double damage.

Current issues

 * Using Party Play disables all GO Plus settings and deletes saved search strings and battle parties.
 * Completing 7 Party Challenges in a single session will cause the game to softlock and become unplayable until the party automatically disbands after the hour timer is up.