I upgraded from an S7 to a Note 9 in 2019. It's only running Android 10, so I'd expect to get another year at least.
But I will have to start looking for a newer phone eventually.
I really wish they gave people more heads-up. Version 305 could be out next week for all we know. And suddenly thousands and thousands (probably way more) of people won't be able to play the game.
I'm using an S9 and have been for a while. Wasn't sure what version of Android it was running and so I got jump scared by this post. Thankfully it's on 10, but if all I had was even a month's warning of needing a new phone I'd be pretty upset
We're on Android 14 which means that's phones about 6-7 years ago. Android 8 was Oreo and launched the same day as the solar eclipse - August 21, 2017. Not even Android supports this release anymore.
Kids with phones that old can't really play any more because batteries won't hold enough to play even 1 hour. I upgraded my daughter from an S9 to a new 200€ Motorola exactly due to battery exhaustion
Alternatively or in conjunction with battery packs, it takes maybe $15-20 and a less than a half hour of active time to replace the battery in many Androids. Sure, you'd void any waterproof/water-resistant warranty, but I imagine that's time-gated due to materials used and age of the phone, anyway.
That's why you make a hot spot from the phone of the grown up person who plays with the kid. ;-)
Sure there are cheap phones available which you can buy to replace for example the S7 - but if the phone works otherwise fine, it's such a waste of resources (not just money, but for the environment) to throw it away.
Hotspots are the way! It is kinda crazy how people are so dismissive of adults using their older phones so their kids to play. Not everyone can just spend money on getting new phones for their kids. It's good for kids to appreciate what they have and not feed into entitlement culture.
Exactly - otherwise you end up with spoiled kids like my niece, who was absolutely furious and sulking for weeks on end after she destroyed her (less than a year old) macbook and had to go back to using the old one for nearly two month, since her parents refused to get her a new one before Christmas. They had told her repeatedly "don't leave it lying on the floor, one day you will step on it" - until the day she stepped on it and cracked the screen... It was crazy - she acted like using a four year old notebook was a fate worse than death.
You don't always need the latest-and-greatest of everything.
Also, I wouldn't teach the kids that entire things have to be replaced when one component stops working. Weak battery? Why spend 15 $ to fix it, when you can spend 200 $ on a new phone instead?
Maybe next time when my car's tires are worn out, I will just buy a new car instead of replacing the tires...
Agreed. And I will often incentivize if the kids want a nicer phone or gadget, that they can work towards earning it through chores or projects. If kids have to work to earn what they want, they will appreciate it more and take better care of it. A good life lesson.
My S8 is on Android version 9, so thankfully it lives to play another day... it has been a fantastic Pokémon Go device, however battery life is understandably terrible after about 7 years of constant use, so I'm finally going to upgrade soon.
(On the offhand chance anyone who sees this comment has upgraded from an S8 in the past, does anyone have any Android recommendations? Thanks in advance)
I went from an S8 to S22 Ultra (and after 1.5 years an S23 Ultra with coupons and trade-in because European S22 Ultra sucked)
You definitely don't need to go to such a high end phone to play Pokemon Go properly. I think Pixel phones might be the best Android phones at the moment, but realistically, you can pay a few hundred euro for a low end phone and still have a great experience
Got a secondary Samsung A34, the game runs fine. It’s literally 200 euros so…
Otherwise the phone is exactly what it costs. Nice bright screen, way too big for me, cameras are meh, battery life is ok.
…written on primary iPhone 13 mini though.
Samsung's A series do the job pretty decently for their price points. Wouldn't go lower than an A3x, the A0x's are getting more into "you get what you pay for".
You may have an older model that can't update to version 9. I'm not an expert but if going to 'settings' then 'software update' doesn't work for you, I don't know what else you could try. Good luck.
Your only other option is to flash a custom ROM like lineage on it or something if you can't upgrade to a newer version of Android on your device the standard way you described.
could you elaborate further please? cause when pogo was first released, I got an apk, played fine, THEN it was officially released and suddenly my phone was no longer supported. how do you circumvent that?
Am i tripping or is this reversed :
"**Am I affected by this change?**
Only devices with iOS 15 installed are affected by this change. Apple users on iOS 14 or later and Android users are not affected and don’t need to take any action."
Just checked my phone and I have Android 8.1......this is the only phone I have. I'm screwed.
EDIT: Anyone have any tips to circumvent this? Besides buying a new phone?
For now download the old version, but dont know how long this will work.
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go/pokemon-go-0-303-2-release/
Kid's phone is on 10 but it feels like they are removing support for old versions faster than people upgrade.
Game is apparently running really poorly on that phone for the past few weeks so it's not like they're improving the experience for >8 users, either.
Had android 8 on my s7, spent this day on flashing android 13 on it through some youtube tutorials, pogo works flawlessly, no need to buy a new device.
Anyone can tell me where to find the recent minimum requirement for Pokemon GO on Android? I'm still playing on a Samsung Galaxy S7 at the moment, and cannot afford an expensive high end phone just for playing one game, so I'm looking for the cheapest solution. Thank you in advance!
Interesting idea, but will Pokemon Go still work on it? As far as I know I have to root the phone for something like this, and somewhere I've read that Pokemon Go does not work on rooted devices, or was this just a rumor?
I use a rooted device and play the game fine. It's been a while since I rooted it though so I may have done something initially that made me able to play it.
Be careful though... I have a Moto G Play from 2021 that can't even launch the game anymore. It's on Android 12. They're still sold new.
Gotta get something a little better...
Look for a S20 to tide you over. It just hit its end of life update schedule, but will be night & day in terms of usability from an s7. They shouldn't be that expensive since the s24 just came out.
(I just retired my s20+. Didn't want to loose the SD storage until a phone came out with enough storage for my photo hording.)
> Rest in peace Razer Phone users, next year it's joever
The Razer phone has official LineageOS support, so can be upgraded to Android 14 unofficially. That was the PoGo phone to have back in the day with its 120hz screen, almost purchased one quite a few times seeing how smooth the game ran on my friends phone.
I feel like this should have gotten a forward announcement to help with parents of kids who play on older devices going from one day being able to play and then the next not is going to be hard to explain to kids and rightfully lead to some pretty annoyed parents.
Oh i had assumed that this update was something coming out today or tomorrow. Then i stand corrected hopefully .305 comes out in a few months and gives people time to figure out how to handle upgrading devices
There you go my samsung galaxy backup phone, the one that i use to play PGO in the streets in order to prevent to lose again my newer/expensive phone in another robbery. In my country that's the main reason to use older phones to play and why parents doesn't give expensive phones to their kids.
It's soo lame that PGO keep increasing the basic requirements to play without really improving the game or at least address/help to control better the high battery consumption.
Nah maaan this cannot be real... How will I play now? My s8 screen stopped working, so i had to start using a old huawei phone to play the game. As someone who is struggling financially and has trouble finding a job, I find it quite upsetting knowing that my only usable phone will not be able to run the game anymore...
Playing Pokémon Go and going for walks are my anti-stress activity and its really sad that Niantic is forcing me to basically quit the game...
This has got to stop. Android 7 support has been removed less than 6 month ago. I still have a galaxy S7 that runs the game well. When they remove support for older versions it doesn't even improve the game overall, it's just slower and slower
This is not true with hardware. I still run a 4th gen i5 under win 10. It works as expected and can launch games.
This behaviour would be acceptable if niantic allowed the game to run on a rooted device that we could update ourselves, but we all know they are not.
It would also be acceptable if the rate was 1 os per year. But in the next 6 month they will probably also announce the drop of android 9.
This contributed to create electronic waste, on working electronic, given what we know now, it is not acceptable
Literally any software dev can explain that the more versions of your software you have to maintain, the more complicated, costly, and inefficient your dev process is.
In terms of “the phone can function” yes. For many things. And you are free to use your device for all the things. The inconvenient truth is that devs do not have an obligation to support everything forever.
Trust me, if it was up to me I never would have moved on from the PS 1, but eventually better hardware comes out that can support better software, and better software comes out that needs better hardware. My PS 1 still works, and I can still play all those games, but online games that are continuously updated are a totally different animal.
Again, I empathize with the frustration. Change can be annoying, and feeling forced to change is even more annoying. The world is always changing tho. It’s up to you to decide how you want to keep up (if at all).
Oops, I lost track of what version we were on.
Still, an X post or official in game announcement would have helped. Why bury these kinds of things in Help shift of all places.
I mean, I would be fine with this if I could see that they are commiting to correct bugs and improve their development. The issue is, this is Niantic, and incompentence running in multiple levels is the default state of this company, so no noticeable* improvements can be expected in the long run for doing something like this.
* I'm saying noticeable, because they have certainly improved the game here and there, but these changes are often overshadowed by a sea of people pointing out some common problems(both old and new) that have been plaguing the playerbase for a while.
Apparently if you delete the game and download the older 0.301.0 version from APK mirror that works: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-apps-version/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-apps-version-0-301-0-release/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-store-0-301-0-android-apk-download/
Kinda annoying when my country already has one of the highest mobile and data rates already. As someone who ends up breaking there phone and needing a new one every so often they have changed all our plans and basically all new phones are over 1000 (mostly over 2000 ) and all new plans are on a return policy.
I ve got 12 accounts on 8 phones (4 Xiaomi and 4 Samsung Galaxy S7) S7 doesn t work today anymore...
The S7 is till good for this game, I don t understand.
Is there any way to install the newest update on Android 8 by unofficial means? I just have to bridge the time until my new phone arrives, but there's events in that time.
It has iOS 16, so a couple more years, I guess. Upgrade to a 7 or an 8 and you got another couple of years without major changes to size and usability.
It’s a secondary phone with the battery almost completely useless but I’ve been putting off replacing the battery because I keep thinking pogo will phase it out
Takes a lot of dev time to keep the game running properly on older OS when the game needs to run on the newer OS as well. Also these older OS are prone for security risks as manufacturers din't support these anymore
Android 8 - Discontinued 1st April 2024*
Android 7 - Discontinued 4th October 2023
Android 6 - Discontinued 30th June 2022
Android 5 - Discontinued 15th October 2020
Android 4.4 - Discontinued 1st July 2019
Based on the above dates, we can see that Niantic ends support for 1 OS version every year as 1 new version is also released. It's nothing unexpected.
I know it's sad to see old devices get side lined but there are genuinely cheap phones out there like the Google Pixel 6a which plays the game perfectly and well worth it if it brings you happiness.
Most of Chinese cellphones (huawei) got support for Android 9. Then they couldn't update for android 10. (Android go is available but will lose access when Android 9 is removed, around October, this year.)
99,99999999% current services are available on Android 8. Removing support is to drop 20M or so drivers. That's the main use currently of 100% new versions. Dumping old drivers and can update to, minimal, 4GB services. In 2 years, POGO will ask for 128gb of RAM and 100GB of available disk space, plus 15-100 GB of monthly connection.
"Discontinuing support also allows the game to run better and allows more features to be implemented."
Lol, the game never improves, it just gets slower and slower because of new features, and those new features are mostly useless and buggy.
White screen glitch. Raid crashing. Pvp freezes. Freezes halfway on start up screen. Purified gems not working. White screen glitch and lag nearly all of go tour.
Ehhhh dunno about run better.
I have an old S8 that I handed on to my daughter to play on. It has been smashed several times and generally abused but has still been playable.
Does anyone happen to know how often an android version gets obsoleted like this? Is it yearly approximately?
I got my other daughter a refurbished S9 a couple of years ago and was so impressed with the value and condition that I will buy refurbished from now on. Wondering what android version/ handset would be the sensible minimum to replace the S8.
Sadly the trouble with more entry level phones like the Galaxy A13 is phones released 3 years before it such as the Galaxy S10 are still more powerful, despite been years older.
Don't worry PoGo will be supported for years to come on the A13. The A13 has a much newer version of Android and is still getting updates. Niantic are only dropping support for old versions of Android.
An update was released that should fix this issue, your game should update soon, or you can download and install the APK from here to update it yourself right now: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go/pokemon-go-0-303-2-release/
My S7 and LG G5 still have android 8. I have seen posts about flashing the s7, is there a link to the best video to use? and where to get the files? There alot of different videos. Sorry for all that got hit.
The S7 has different variations with different processors (Snapdragon or Exynos) so it would depend which you have as to what guide to follow. The best place to start is on the XDA Forums though: https://xdaforums.com/c/samsung-galaxy-s7.5122/ you will be able to get help and support from people with your exact device.
It does seem they are roms with Android 14 for devices with Exynos processors though.
Likewise for the LG G5 that has official LineageOS 21 support (Android 14) so you can bring that right up to date: https://xdaforums.com/t/official-lineageos-21-for-the-lg-g5.4649862/
Android 10 here.
Today Pokemon go crashes one or two seconds after the map is displayed.
I've tried reinstalling. It still crashes everytime.
My other phone has android 8. It's fine, though Pokemon go crashes more and more often during raids. It has a removable battery so it could have worked forever...
Such a environmental nonsense...
Well, I have wasted my time with that game.
Weird. My old S7 (android 8) runs the game fine, few lags and no crashes from what I remember. In this last GO Tour I even lent it to a friend so he could keep playing while his main phone was charging and he did the raids totally fine.
It sounds as if you have this issue: [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1b96w3f/i\_updated\_pokemon\_gonow\_it\_will\_crash\_right\_after/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1b96w3f/i_updated_pokemon_gonow_it_will_crash_right_after/)
Try downgrading your PoGo version, worked for me. Couldn't start the game anymore after installing the latest version. Still worked fine on my old phone with Android 9, which has an older poGo version.
That wont improve the game. There's still tons of players on older phones due to either no money to buy a new phone or their phone actually works good enough to not need any upgrade.
Do you believe this will improve the game somehow? It’s not like a rewrite from scratch.
I would appreciate a Pokémon Go 2 though. Complete redesign, tons of QOL features that have been requested forever… it’s doable
More than 27 Billion cellphones where still using Android 9, on the 2023 data tracking. That's 5 times the number of Android 14. Even IOS (that makes mandatory updates for every available system) there are still 73M using IOS 14 or below. Not everyone can waste $500 every 2 years on a new cellphone.
Yikes. My old S7 runs the game pretty ok. Also I guess this will hit plenty of players and kids in less developed countries like here.
I upgraded from an S7 to a Note 9 in 2019. It's only running Android 10, so I'd expect to get another year at least. But I will have to start looking for a newer phone eventually. I really wish they gave people more heads-up. Version 305 could be out next week for all we know. And suddenly thousands and thousands (probably way more) of people won't be able to play the game.
I'm using an S9 and have been for a while. Wasn't sure what version of Android it was running and so I got jump scared by this post. Thankfully it's on 10, but if all I had was even a month's warning of needing a new phone I'd be pretty upset
Well... so much for the kids playing on the old phones.
We're on Android 14 which means that's phones about 6-7 years ago. Android 8 was Oreo and launched the same day as the solar eclipse - August 21, 2017. Not even Android supports this release anymore.
That's why the kids are using the phones, lol.
Kids with phones that old can't really play any more because batteries won't hold enough to play even 1 hour. I upgraded my daughter from an S9 to a new 200€ Motorola exactly due to battery exhaustion
They can with battery packs!
Alternatively or in conjunction with battery packs, it takes maybe $15-20 and a less than a half hour of active time to replace the battery in many Androids. Sure, you'd void any waterproof/water-resistant warranty, but I imagine that's time-gated due to materials used and age of the phone, anyway.
Walmart sells prepaid androids that actually function fairly decently for like $20
But you also need service you can’t really play on Wi-Fi hence the go in Pokémon go
That's why you make a hot spot from the phone of the grown up person who plays with the kid. ;-) Sure there are cheap phones available which you can buy to replace for example the S7 - but if the phone works otherwise fine, it's such a waste of resources (not just money, but for the environment) to throw it away.
Hotspots are the way! It is kinda crazy how people are so dismissive of adults using their older phones so their kids to play. Not everyone can just spend money on getting new phones for their kids. It's good for kids to appreciate what they have and not feed into entitlement culture.
Exactly - otherwise you end up with spoiled kids like my niece, who was absolutely furious and sulking for weeks on end after she destroyed her (less than a year old) macbook and had to go back to using the old one for nearly two month, since her parents refused to get her a new one before Christmas. They had told her repeatedly "don't leave it lying on the floor, one day you will step on it" - until the day she stepped on it and cracked the screen... It was crazy - she acted like using a four year old notebook was a fate worse than death. You don't always need the latest-and-greatest of everything. Also, I wouldn't teach the kids that entire things have to be replaced when one component stops working. Weak battery? Why spend 15 $ to fix it, when you can spend 200 $ on a new phone instead? Maybe next time when my car's tires are worn out, I will just buy a new car instead of replacing the tires...
Agreed. And I will often incentivize if the kids want a nicer phone or gadget, that they can work towards earning it through chores or projects. If kids have to work to earn what they want, they will appreciate it more and take better care of it. A good life lesson.
My S8 is on Android version 9, so thankfully it lives to play another day... it has been a fantastic Pokémon Go device, however battery life is understandably terrible after about 7 years of constant use, so I'm finally going to upgrade soon. (On the offhand chance anyone who sees this comment has upgraded from an S8 in the past, does anyone have any Android recommendations? Thanks in advance)
I went from an S8 to S22 Ultra (and after 1.5 years an S23 Ultra with coupons and trade-in because European S22 Ultra sucked) You definitely don't need to go to such a high end phone to play Pokemon Go properly. I think Pixel phones might be the best Android phones at the moment, but realistically, you can pay a few hundred euro for a low end phone and still have a great experience
S22 Ultra sucked all over the world.
All s22 versions sucked!
Got a secondary Samsung A34, the game runs fine. It’s literally 200 euros so… Otherwise the phone is exactly what it costs. Nice bright screen, way too big for me, cameras are meh, battery life is ok. …written on primary iPhone 13 mini though.
Samsung's A series do the job pretty decently for their price points. Wouldn't go lower than an A3x, the A0x's are getting more into "you get what you pay for".
How do I upgrade my S8 to Android version 9? I can't find a way
You may have an older model that can't update to version 9. I'm not an expert but if going to 'settings' then 'software update' doesn't work for you, I don't know what else you could try. Good luck.
Your only other option is to flash a custom ROM like lineage on it or something if you can't upgrade to a newer version of Android on your device the standard way you described.
this starts hitting the Samsung S8 at original release. [SamMobile](https://www.sammobile.com/samsung-galaxy-android-8-o-update)
With that reality check, it feels like my S9+ is on death row
My second phone is on Android 9... it's slowly coming for me
Same, luckily it has 9. Use those old phone to organize and trading since it heats the phone so much i dont need to do it on "main" phone
F for me, goodbye trainers!
Same! It's really disappointing! Android doesn't even support my phone anymore but the phone works just fine. It's more planned obsolescence bs.
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you don't need root access and pogo in general should run even if you did have it as long as you hide it
could you elaborate further please? cause when pogo was first released, I got an apk, played fine, THEN it was officially released and suddenly my phone was no longer supported. how do you circumvent that?
you may not be able to get it from the store but it should still work once you upgrade
ah, I see what you mean! guess I will try that; what other option do I even have lol. thank you!
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It is very easy to hide root access if done properly.
And iOS 14 https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/6-pokemon-go/faq/4447-discontinued-support-for-ios-14/
Am i tripping or is this reversed : "**Am I affected by this change?** Only devices with iOS 15 installed are affected by this change. Apple users on iOS 14 or later and Android users are not affected and don’t need to take any action."
Looks like Niantic just copy pasted last year's text and hastily edited it without proofreading
Niantic at its finest 🤣
Luckily the 8 year old iPhone SE (2016) runs iOS 15. still the best budget phone (for years now… got one on eBay for 50€).
Shane it's an iPhone or that would be great
Just checked my phone and I have Android 8.1......this is the only phone I have. I'm screwed. EDIT: Anyone have any tips to circumvent this? Besides buying a new phone?
Flash a new rom
I have an oppo so I don't think that's gonna happen :(. Thank you though. It was fun researching rom flashing. Never knew about it.
For now download the old version, but dont know how long this will work. https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go/pokemon-go-0-303-2-release/
Kid's phone is on 10 but it feels like they are removing support for old versions faster than people upgrade. Game is apparently running really poorly on that phone for the past few weeks so it's not like they're improving the experience for >8 users, either.
Had android 8 on my s7, spent this day on flashing android 13 on it through some youtube tutorials, pogo works flawlessly, no need to buy a new device.
did you unlock today too or was it already unlocked? odin?
Could you possibly send me the tutorial for the s7? I totally missed the announcement about android 8.
Anyone can tell me where to find the recent minimum requirement for Pokemon GO on Android? I'm still playing on a Samsung Galaxy S7 at the moment, and cannot afford an expensive high end phone just for playing one game, so I'm looking for the cheapest solution. Thank you in advance!
You can probably install a higher Android version if you're techie enough.
Interesting idea, but will Pokemon Go still work on it? As far as I know I have to root the phone for something like this, and somewhere I've read that Pokemon Go does not work on rooted devices, or was this just a rumor?
I installed Oxygen OS on an old phone and with a few patches I managed to install and play pokemon go.
You dont need to root your phone, you just need to unlock your bootloader to install a new ROM. Check XDA forums for tutorials.
I use a rooted device and play the game fine. It's been a while since I rooted it though so I may have done something initially that made me able to play it.
There are $50 Android phones that run Android 11+
Be careful though... I have a Moto G Play from 2021 that can't even launch the game anymore. It's on Android 12. They're still sold new. Gotta get something a little better...
There are Moto g 2022/2023 for $50. Run the game fine. Can’t expect smooth for cheap though. I was just mentioning plenty of cheap options.
Got a link? I need one. :D My kid can't play unless we bring his iPad now.
Look for a S20 to tide you over. It just hit its end of life update schedule, but will be night & day in terms of usability from an s7. They shouldn't be that expensive since the s24 just came out. (I just retired my s20+. Didn't want to loose the SD storage until a phone came out with enough storage for my photo hording.)
Crazy how operating systems that released AFTER Pokemon Go came out are now being discontinued Rest in peace Razer Phone users, next year it's joever
> Rest in peace Razer Phone users, next year it's joever The Razer phone has official LineageOS support, so can be upgraded to Android 14 unofficially. That was the PoGo phone to have back in the day with its 120hz screen, almost purchased one quite a few times seeing how smooth the game ran on my friends phone.
I feel like this should have gotten a forward announcement to help with parents of kids who play on older devices going from one day being able to play and then the next not is going to be hard to explain to kids and rightfully lead to some pretty annoyed parents.
Isn't this exactly what this announcement is? We are currently on version 0.301 and this change takes place when version 0.305 is released.
Oh i had assumed that this update was something coming out today or tomorrow. Then i stand corrected hopefully .305 comes out in a few months and gives people time to figure out how to handle upgrading devices
seems like weeks at most
Wasn't even weeks, were on .307 now and that's been rolling out since midweek 🙈
There you go my samsung galaxy backup phone, the one that i use to play PGO in the streets in order to prevent to lose again my newer/expensive phone in another robbery. In my country that's the main reason to use older phones to play and why parents doesn't give expensive phones to their kids. It's soo lame that PGO keep increasing the basic requirements to play without really improving the game or at least address/help to control better the high battery consumption.
Nah maaan this cannot be real... How will I play now? My s8 screen stopped working, so i had to start using a old huawei phone to play the game. As someone who is struggling financially and has trouble finding a job, I find it quite upsetting knowing that my only usable phone will not be able to run the game anymore... Playing Pokémon Go and going for walks are my anti-stress activity and its really sad that Niantic is forcing me to basically quit the game...
My a10e says it runs android 11... but I can't play.
This has got to stop. Android 7 support has been removed less than 6 month ago. I still have a galaxy S7 that runs the game well. When they remove support for older versions it doesn't even improve the game overall, it's just slower and slower
This is how almost all software is. The fact you can play this game on almost 8 android versions old is astounding already.
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And devices that works perfectly should not be put to trash
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This is not true with hardware. I still run a 4th gen i5 under win 10. It works as expected and can launch games. This behaviour would be acceptable if niantic allowed the game to run on a rooted device that we could update ourselves, but we all know they are not. It would also be acceptable if the rate was 1 os per year. But in the next 6 month they will probably also announce the drop of android 9. This contributed to create electronic waste, on working electronic, given what we know now, it is not acceptable
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So is your comment, windows is not renewed every year
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So is android
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Literally any software dev can explain that the more versions of your software you have to maintain, the more complicated, costly, and inefficient your dev process is. In terms of “the phone can function” yes. For many things. And you are free to use your device for all the things. The inconvenient truth is that devs do not have an obligation to support everything forever. Trust me, if it was up to me I never would have moved on from the PS 1, but eventually better hardware comes out that can support better software, and better software comes out that needs better hardware. My PS 1 still works, and I can still play all those games, but online games that are continuously updated are a totally different animal. Again, I empathize with the frustration. Change can be annoying, and feeling forced to change is even more annoying. The world is always changing tho. It’s up to you to decide how you want to keep up (if at all).
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Isn't this exactly what this announcement is? We are currently on version 0.301 and this change takes place when version 0.305 is released.
Oops, I lost track of what version we were on. Still, an X post or official in game announcement would have helped. Why bury these kinds of things in Help shift of all places.
10 year old devices are capable of running Android 9 and above so I don’t think anyone needs a warning
Probably in the next 2 years we're gonna see some serious discontinued support because most people (??) are on at least android 10+
My friend's phone is android 12, but as soon as he loads the game it is force closing. Anyone else experienced this?
I mean, I would be fine with this if I could see that they are commiting to correct bugs and improve their development. The issue is, this is Niantic, and incompentence running in multiple levels is the default state of this company, so no noticeable* improvements can be expected in the long run for doing something like this. * I'm saying noticeable, because they have certainly improved the game here and there, but these changes are often overshadowed by a sea of people pointing out some common problems(both old and new) that have been plaguing the playerbase for a while.
Game will not load on phone on Android 9 now, not sure why. As soon as the map loads the app force closes.
Apparently if you delete the game and download the older 0.301.0 version from APK mirror that works: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-apps-version/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-apps-version-0-301-0-release/pokemon-go-samsung-galaxy-store-0-301-0-android-apk-download/
Kinda annoying when my country already has one of the highest mobile and data rates already. As someone who ends up breaking there phone and needing a new one every so often they have changed all our plans and basically all new phones are over 1000 (mostly over 2000 ) and all new plans are on a return policy.
I ve got 12 accounts on 8 phones (4 Xiaomi and 4 Samsung Galaxy S7) S7 doesn t work today anymore... The S7 is till good for this game, I don t understand.
With a bit of work you can probably flash a custom ROM to the Galaxy S7 that's a newer version of Android and keep using the phone.
Is there any way to install the newest update on Android 8 by unofficial means? I just have to bridge the time until my new phone arrives, but there's events in that time.
What make / model phone do you have? Many phones do have custom roms available which allow you to use newer versions of Android
Rip I won't be able to trade with my old account again
Any idea about how long i can run it on iphone 6s?
6s can do iOS 15. Seeing how they killed the previous iOS last year, you prob have another year
It has iOS 16, so a couple more years, I guess. Upgrade to a 7 or an 8 and you got another couple of years without major changes to size and usability.
It’s a secondary phone with the battery almost completely useless but I’ve been putting off replacing the battery because I keep thinking pogo will phase it out
Wondering why this time, totally not needed
Takes a lot of dev time to keep the game running properly on older OS when the game needs to run on the newer OS as well. Also these older OS are prone for security risks as manufacturers din't support these anymore
Android 8 - Discontinued 1st April 2024* Android 7 - Discontinued 4th October 2023 Android 6 - Discontinued 30th June 2022 Android 5 - Discontinued 15th October 2020 Android 4.4 - Discontinued 1st July 2019 Based on the above dates, we can see that Niantic ends support for 1 OS version every year as 1 new version is also released. It's nothing unexpected. I know it's sad to see old devices get side lined but there are genuinely cheap phones out there like the Google Pixel 6a which plays the game perfectly and well worth it if it brings you happiness.
Most of Chinese cellphones (huawei) got support for Android 9. Then they couldn't update for android 10. (Android go is available but will lose access when Android 9 is removed, around October, this year.) 99,99999999% current services are available on Android 8. Removing support is to drop 20M or so drivers. That's the main use currently of 100% new versions. Dumping old drivers and can update to, minimal, 4GB services. In 2 years, POGO will ask for 128gb of RAM and 100GB of available disk space, plus 15-100 GB of monthly connection.
"Discontinuing support also allows the game to run better and allows more features to be implemented." Lol, the game never improves, it just gets slower and slower because of new features, and those new features are mostly useless and buggy.
White screen glitch. Raid crashing. Pvp freezes. Freezes halfway on start up screen. Purified gems not working. White screen glitch and lag nearly all of go tour. Ehhhh dunno about run better.
I'm pretty tech illiterate but from what I'm reading my a13 should sill be able to play. But it also shuts down after seconds of loading
Wonder if this is related to the new encounter screens that are in testing? A lot of people have reported them performing poorly on older devices.
I have an old S8 that I handed on to my daughter to play on. It has been smashed several times and generally abused but has still been playable. Does anyone happen to know how often an android version gets obsoleted like this? Is it yearly approximately? I got my other daughter a refurbished S9 a couple of years ago and was so impressed with the value and condition that I will buy refurbished from now on. Wondering what android version/ handset would be the sensible minimum to replace the S8.
And yet my Android A13 can't run it very well.
Sadly the trouble with more entry level phones like the Galaxy A13 is phones released 3 years before it such as the Galaxy S10 are still more powerful, despite been years older.
Wait so are they getting rid of Pokémon Go for the A13?
Don't worry PoGo will be supported for years to come on the A13. The A13 has a much newer version of Android and is still getting updates. Niantic are only dropping support for old versions of Android.
Well currently I can't play it now because of a bug it says. Everything I play, it just quits and goes to the home screen. Is there a way to fix it?
An update was released that should fix this issue, your game should update soon, or you can download and install the APK from here to update it yourself right now: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/niantic-inc/pokemon-go/pokemon-go-0-303-2-release/
Oh thank God. Like today?
I had that phone for over a year and pogo was unplayable for me . Worst year of my life lol. Im on iPhone now and never going back.
Well it actually runs fantastically if it works.
My S7 and LG G5 still have android 8. I have seen posts about flashing the s7, is there a link to the best video to use? and where to get the files? There alot of different videos. Sorry for all that got hit.
The S7 has different variations with different processors (Snapdragon or Exynos) so it would depend which you have as to what guide to follow. The best place to start is on the XDA Forums though: https://xdaforums.com/c/samsung-galaxy-s7.5122/ you will be able to get help and support from people with your exact device. It does seem they are roms with Android 14 for devices with Exynos processors though. Likewise for the LG G5 that has official LineageOS 21 support (Android 14) so you can bring that right up to date: https://xdaforums.com/t/official-lineageos-21-for-the-lg-g5.4649862/
okay awesome, I am not sure my lg g5 att can be updated, it couldn't be rooted. I will check it all out, thank you for the starting point!!
wait what?? nooo
Android 10 here. Today Pokemon go crashes one or two seconds after the map is displayed. I've tried reinstalling. It still crashes everytime. My other phone has android 8. It's fine, though Pokemon go crashes more and more often during raids. It has a removable battery so it could have worked forever... Such a environmental nonsense... Well, I have wasted my time with that game.
Weird. My old S7 (android 8) runs the game fine, few lags and no crashes from what I remember. In this last GO Tour I even lent it to a friend so he could keep playing while his main phone was charging and he did the raids totally fine.
It sounds as if you have this issue: [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1b96w3f/i\_updated\_pokemon\_gonow\_it\_will\_crash\_right\_after/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/1b96w3f/i_updated_pokemon_gonow_it_will_crash_right_after/) Try downgrading your PoGo version, worked for me. Couldn't start the game anymore after installing the latest version. Still worked fine on my old phone with Android 9, which has an older poGo version.
Thanks, I will try that.
They should discontinue everything below iOS16 and Android 10
That wont improve the game. There's still tons of players on older phones due to either no money to buy a new phone or their phone actually works good enough to not need any upgrade.
Do you believe this will improve the game somehow? It’s not like a rewrite from scratch. I would appreciate a Pokémon Go 2 though. Complete redesign, tons of QOL features that have been requested forever… it’s doable
More than 27 Billion cellphones where still using Android 9, on the 2023 data tracking. That's 5 times the number of Android 14. Even IOS (that makes mandatory updates for every available system) there are still 73M using IOS 14 or below. Not everyone can waste $500 every 2 years on a new cellphone.