A few hours ago, Niantic, the developer of the popular game, Pokemon GO, revealed that it is dropping support for 32-bit smartphones beginning from August. A brief statement was released by the company explaining why it needs to make such a change to streamline its development process and place more focus on supporting newer smartphones and operating systems.
What this means is that by August, you will no longer be able to use your older devices to access your Pokemon GO accounts. Instead, you will have to switch to a newer 64-bit smartphone to be able to continue playing the game. Niantic also advised users to backup their account info and passwords.
Niantic also shares a sample list which contained some of the 32-bit smartphones that will no longer be supported by August such as:
- Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, Note 3, J3
- Sony Xperia Z2, Z3
- Motorola Moto G (1st generation)
- LG Fortune, Tribute
- OnePlus One
- HTC One (M8)
- ZTE Overture 3
- Many Android devices released before 2015
Another issue is that while many Android smartphones are powered by a 64-bit chipset, they still run a 32-bit version of Android. Such smartphones will also lose support for Pokemon GO by August.
Phones that fall in this category are those launched as recently as last year and this can be an issue for many Pokemon gamers. A group of enthusiasts from a Pokemon GO focused subreddit have compiled a list of phones that will be losing support in August. You can check them out here. As at the time of writing this post, there are already over 60 phones in the list and counting.
