Pokemon Go will at last get Pokemon trading this summer — two years after the game first hit phones.

Developer Niantic and The Pokemon Company revealed that both trading and a friends feature will be added into the app this summer — with a twist that brings them closer to the way these work in the core Pokemon games like Pokemon Sun and Moon on Nintendo 3DS.

Friends that would like to add each other to Pokemon Go will have to send a “secure Friend Request” using a Trainer Code to accept or receive an invitation. On first impression this sounds like the Friend Code system Nintendo has employed on its consoles for years. But friends that are linked together on Pokemon Go can team up at Pokemon Gym and Raid Battles while achieving “Friendship level milestone rewards on their way to Best Friend status.”

Now Playing: Watch this: Pokemon Go’s ARKit update makes you a sneaky bastard

1:09

Trading will also involve this friend system, letting players who are connected to each other trade Pokemon as long as they are also in physical proximity of each other. Unfortunately that sounds like I won’t be able to trade any of my New York Pokemon with my colleagues in CNET’s San Francisco office, but the game is offering a bonus should friends trade Pokemon that were originally caught far apart from each other.

An official launch date for these features was not revealed beyond the summer launch period. Our sister site GameSpot has even more details about the new trading system, including photos of what it looks like. Read GameSpot’s explainer here.

13

Gotta eat ’em all at new Pokemon Cafe in Singapore