The buddy system has just been added to Pokemon Go in the latest update. (Niantic)
Niantic Labs has removed Pokemon Go support for jailbroken or rooted devices.
In the game’s most recent update, released on September 10th, the patch notes mention that “Rooted or jailbroken devices are not supported by Pokémon GO.” This line stood out as puzzling to a lot of players, especially since it’s just a general statement which doesn’t specifically mention that anything has changed.
But it has now been confirmed that when you download the update, you will no longer be able to log in to the game if you’re on a jailbroken or rooted device. You will receive a message that says, “This device, OS, or software is not compatible with Pokemon Go.”
It seems that Niantic made this change in order to crack down on cheaters. That has been a major concern for the game studio, with many players attempting to get around the game’s rules and using bots to take over gyms without doing any work. As well, there are many Android emulators for the PC that allow players to use the app from home, and these appear on the system as if they’re coming from rooted devices.
But some players are frustrated, as they have jailbroken or rooted devices for reasons other than wanting to cheat at the game. For example, on Android phones, rooting your device can open up the door to a lot of customization that would not otherwise be available. There are many legitimate reasons to want to set up your device this way. Now, many of these people feel like they’ve been kicked out of a community they love despite not doing anything wrong.
“Spent almost £120 on this game to be denied access because I wanted to customise my homescreen on my Galaxy S5,” one Reddit user complained. “This is the most naive and illogical development team I’ve ever known.”
For now, players on rooted or jailbroken devices can simply not update the app. But that will only last as a solution for so long, as the game usually becomes unplayable without the latest update after about two weeks.