'Pokémon GO' News: Some iOS Devices Will Soon Lose Access to the Game

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Friday, January 12, 2018

Niantic has announced that it will soon drop support for "Pokémon GO" on older iOS devices.

This week, the "Pokémon GO" developer confirmed that an upcoming update will prevent older iOS device from accessing the game, particularly the hardware models that are no longer compatible with iOS 11.

"This change is a result of improvements to Pokémon GO that push the application beyond the capabilities of the operating systems on such devices," Niantic further explained.

Overall, there will be six iOS devices that will be affected by the update. These include the iPhone 5 (A1428, A1429, A1442), iPhone 5c (A1456, A1507, A1516, A1529, A1532), third-generation iPad (A1416, A1430, A1403), fourth-generation iPad (A1458, A1459, A1460), first-generation iPad Mini (A1432, A1454, A1455), and iPad 2 (A1395, A1396, A1397). The alphanumerics that are listed inside the parentheses are the model numbers of the affected devices.

As mentioned, unfortunately, there will be no options for affected "Pokémon GO" trainers to access the game other than upgrading to a newer device.

The game developer also shared that once the upcoming update goes live, trainers using the said devices will no longer be able to log in to their "Pokémon GO" accounts or access their acquired in-game contents. They will instead get a message advising them to use other supported hardware.

Meanwhile, according to Polygon, "Pokémon GO" players with Apple devices other than the mentioned above are actually not required to update to iOS 11 based on a number of reports from trainers who prefer to continue using an operating system older than iOS 11.

In fact, in Niantic's list of requirements for "Pokémon GO," the developer indicated that trainers can use devices running on at least iOS 9 on iPhone 5s or newer models. It is also important to note that support is not included for units that have been jailbroken.

On the other hand, the upcoming update will not restrict access on any Android device as long as they are running Android 4.4 or later.

The update is set to go live on Feb. 28.