How to use search terms in Pokémon Go

While this one is likely more useful in combination with other search terms, Female, Male, and GenderUnknown will filter their respective gendered Pokémon. While uncommon, there are some Pokémon whose evolution is determined by gender. For example, if you wanted to find Ralts that could evolve into Gardevoir, you would search Ralts & female, and only the female Ralts would show up; whereas for those who could evolve into Gallade, you would search Ralts & male.

For the time being, each of the Pokémon world regions that have been released to Pokémon Go are also Search Terms. These include Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova. However, two regions are currently being used as other Search Terms: Alola and Galar. Pokémon Go still hasn't seen the Kalos Region with Generation VI, but due to the introduction of Regional Variants, these Search Terms can already be used. Either way, these Search Terms aren't particularly useful on their own, given that smallest Generations still have over 70 Pokémon.

If you've been playing Pokémon long enough, you have bound to come across a Pokémon that doesn't look like the rest of its species. This could be as simple as the slight hue shift of a Shiny Pikachu or something as extreme as the difference between an Alolan Regional Exeggutor and the standard. Either way, these variant Pokémon versions can also be found with Search Terms. The Search Terms Shiny and Costume are both fairly self-explanatory, specifically displaying Shiny Variants and Pokémon wearing costumes (including all those Pikachu wearing hats!) The other two are for newer concepts: Regional Variants. If you're not familiar with Regional Variants, this was a concept introduced in Gen VII's Alola Region. These special Pokémon look drastically different from the original counterparts and even have different types. Although the Generations to feature Regional Variants have not made it to Pokémon Go yet, these specific Pokémon have been introduced early. Using either Alolan or Galarian, you can see these specific Variants.

With the introduction of Team Go Rocket to Pokémon Go, players were introduced to Shadow Pokémon and the Purification process. Along with that came two new Search Terms: Shadow and Purified. These Search Terms can be especially useful when trying to complete the Looming in the Shadows Special Research, as it requires purifying many Shadow Pokémon each month.