Niantic is rolling out Pokémon GO version 0.37.0 for Android and 1.7.0 for iOS soon, and with it comes several additions that the community has been looking forward to for quite some time — Buddy Pokémon and support for the Pokémon GO Plus accessory. However, the update also marks the end of the game's availability on rooted Android devices and jailbroken iOS devices.
Honestly, this update is something of a mixed bag. Yes, Buddy Pokemon and support for the Pokémon GO Plus accessory are great (unless you are unwilling to forgive Niantic for delaying the product in the first place), but the move to end support for rooted and jailbroken devices was a mistake. Why? Because not everyone who uses such devices is cheating.
However, before we go into that issue, here are the complete patch notes, according to the Pokémon GO website:
• Implemented Buddy Pokémon: Trainers will now be able to choose one of their Pokémon to be their buddy. A Trainer can earn Candy for their Buddy Pokémon by walking a certain distance.
• Made it easier to select smaller Pokémon on the screen.
• Fixed an issue where Eggs would sometimes hatch without displaying the animation.
• Improved performance reliability when a device switches networks to no longer cause the application to hang or stop updating.
• Pokémon GO Plus support
• Minor text fixes.
The majority of these changes are straightforward and only serve to make the game more enjoyable and easier to play — things that Niantic has been putting greater effort in after understanding that some of its recent moves have only served to piss off Pokémon GO's playerbase, and cause some to leave the game.
However, the same can't necessarily be said about the decision to end support for rooted and jailbroken devices. At face value, Niantic's move seems simple: to stop people from cheating.
"We continue to focus on eliminating bots and scrapers from Pokémon GO. Rooted or jailbroken devices are not supported by Pokémon GO. Remember to download Pokémon GO from the official Google Play Store or iTunes App Store only."
And, of course, Niantic wouldn't be wrong in making that move — in theory. Currently, Pokémon GO is a haven for GPS spoofers who can capture gyms simply by appearing out of thin air. Considering that a lot of the basic GPS spoofing apps need rooted or jailbroken devices to work, locking out such users would make sense.
However, the reality is that many of the people who do have jailbroken or rooted devices aren't using their devices to cheat, but they're enhancing the functions of their devices. What Niantic has done is to leave some of its users with an interesting decision: either unroot their device or stop playing Pokémon GO.
For what it's worth, it's still possible to get around this via Magisk (similar to Android Pay), but it requires quite a bit of effort so much so that people who weren't cheating likely won't bother. What's more, there are more ways to cheat in Pokémon GO than just using a rooted device.
So, what did Niantic actually accomplish with this update? The opposite of what it set out to do. Yes, some hackers will be done for by this update, but so will many people who have been playing the game legitimately.
