Niantic on Tuesday announced that Pokémon GO will require an iPhone or iPad capable of running iOS 11 or later at the end of February.
The company plans to release an update for Pokémon GO around February 28, 2018 that will end support for older iPhone and iPad models incapable of updating to iOS 11, including the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c.
The complete list of affected devices, released between 2011 and 2013:
- iPhone 5
- iPhone 5c
- iPad (4th generation)
- iPad (3rd generation)
- iPad mini (1st generation)
- iPad 2
After that date, players may no longer be able to access their Pokémon GO accounts on affected devices, or use their PokéCoins or other items in their bags. They will need to switch to a supported device to continue playing the game.
More specifically, players who attempt to access Pokémon GO using any of the devices listed above will no longer be able to sign in and will see a message stating that they need to switch to a supported device, suggesting server-side changes.
Niantic said the change is a result of improvements to Pokémon GO that push the game beyond the capabilities of previous iOS versions, likely including a new AR+ mode based on Apple's ARKit for iPhone 6s and newer.
Top Rated Comments
The reason why niantic forces updates is to combat spoofing and scanners. If they leave the old API active, then people can cheat more easily.
They are also giving a 7 week notice. That’s a lot of time.
He’s using my old 5 currently, and losing access to Pokémon wouldn’t be fair to him.
It’s pretty straightforward in the announcement last night, but this post leaves that out.
“This change is a result of improvements to Pokémon GO that push the application beyond the capabilities of the operating systems on such devices.”