Pokémon GO is a game that has been enjoyed by millions of players the world over, but support is ending for certain Android users in the near future.
Niantic via its official Pokémon GO Twitter has confirmed that it will be stopping support for the game on older versions of Android. So hopefully you didn’t want to keep playing it if you’re using a device with an older version of the software.
The good news, is that this probably won’t impact most players. Because most players are using new versions of Android these days.
Pokémon GO will end support for Android Lollipop users
If you’re running on Android 5 Lollipop, then you’ll need to make peace with not playing this game in the near future.
Niantic says support will stop in October. This will happen as part of an upcoming update in that month. So you still have some time to play if you’re using a Lollipop device to do so.
While this unfortunately may lock out some players for a time, none of the player data gets lost. Once those players have moved onto a newer device that has a newer version of Android on it, gameplay can resume. And naturally everything associated with those accounts will still be there.
Lollipop users aren’t the only ones being left behind either. Anyone on iOS 10, iOS 11, or using an iPhone 5s or iPhone 6 will lose support as well.
It was bound to happen
Like any live service game, Pokémon GO continues to evolve and get new features. Even now with being a few years old.
So it was bound to happen that Niantic would eventually cut off older devices. As the game evolves and gets new content, it grows a little and becomes more demanding of hardware and software.
Not to mention new features may sometimes be reliant on features that are only available in a specific version of software. This is more than likely the reason for what’s happening here.
Even if Niantic didn’t say it in so many words, Lollipop devices are simply not able to provide the best game experience to players anymore.
In an upcoming update to Pokémon GO in October, we will end support for Android 5, iOS 10, and iOS 11, as well as iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 devices. Trainers with devices not specifically listed here will not be affected and don’t need to take any action.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) August 31, 2020