Pokemon Go Gyms Are Now Disabled
Gyms have been disabled. Once the next update rolls out to all players around the world, Gyms will [...]
Gyms have been disabled. Once the next update rolls out to all players around the world, Gyms will return. Stay tuned for more details.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) June 19, 2017
All defending Pokemon have been returned to their trainers and the gyms have returned to a blank "white" state. Tapping on the gym will cause a message to pop up that says "gyms_disabled_update" which presumably will be replaced with a real message later today.
Pokemon Go shut down the gyms to help roll out its next major update, which will bring massive changes to the gym system. All gyms will have six permanent slots for gym defenders, which can be filled by any Pokemon. Once a Pokemon is put in the gym, other team members can't put another Pokemon of the same species into the gym. Attackers will also battle gym defenders based on when they were added instead of by escalating CP.
Other changes will include a new "Raid Battles" feature which will temporarily take over gyms, the ability to obtain items from gyms, and a new "Motivation" meter that will slowly decrease over time. Pokemon with low motivation will be much easier to defeat than Pokemon with high motivation.
No word on how long the gyms will be down, but we'll likely see more news about the next update sometime in the next few days.
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