At the time of writing, Pokemon Unite is only available to players on Nintendo Switch, but it won't be that way for long. The Pokemon MOBA is scheduled to release on mobile in September, opening up the audience dramatically and bringing even more players into the fray. The question at the top of everyone's mind then is whether or not the game will feature crossplay capabilities. With crossplay, those on Nintendo Switch would be able to fight alongside or against their friends on Mobile, a feature that would delight fans and ensure that the queue times for battles don't get too long.
While crossplay tends to refer to allowing players on different platforms to play together, the other facet of this is cross saves. With these, players are able to use their same account on either device, switching back and forth and maintaining their progress easily. Pokemon Unite would benefit from this drastically, especially since the Switch's portability doesn't help much when online play is required.
The good news is that Pokemon Unite will feature crossplay between Switch and Mobile, and it doesn't stop there either. Cross save functionality is also confirmed, meaning players won't be restricted to just one device. This will be especially useful for those players that started playing on Switch but want to change over to mobile once it releases. Before fans get too excited about this news, there's one important piece of information that needs pointing out. The confirmation of cross-play comes directly from Nintendo, but it doesn't say when this feature will be available.
The specific wording of this announcement says that "Cross-platform play between Nintendo Switch and mobile devices is planned." This means it's possible that the feature won't be available immediately upon release of the mobile version. This is just speculation, however, and it's just as likely (if not more likely) that the game will be cross-play from the get-go. By contrast, Pokemon Unite developer TiMi Studios says nothing that would imply cross-save functionality won't be available form the very start.
It seems as though playing with friends on other platforms and even switching between platforms will be extremely easy, and hopefully players won't have to worry too much about it. Although Pokemon Unite has some clunky UIs, this isn't likely to be one of them. Player data should be stored on the Pokemon Unite server, so it should make no difference whether players are on Switch or Mobile come this September.
Pokemon Unite is available now on Switch and releases for Mobile this September.