Pokémon GO News And Latest Update: Niantic Banned Players Using Jailbroken, Rooted Devices

Sad news for Pokémon GO players out there. Niantic's anti-cheat team implemented a ban to all players using rooted Android and jailbroken Apple devices. In an official announcement posted on their Facebook page Niantic said, "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."

This update from Niantic obviously garnered negative backlash from its players. Most players utilize jailbreak or rooted devices to be able to hijack into the operating system allowing more features that were previously delimited by phone manufacturers. Several app developers created third party apps to add more features in the game.  Niantic was particularly concerned on the GPS spoofing apps which let users create a virtual location in playing the game.

This way, players with rooted or jailbroken device can easily increase their level and capture more Pokémons even without physically going outdoors. Also, GPS spoofing apps can exploit the new feature buddy system which requires the users to walk their buddy Pokémons several kilometers to gain the candy reward.

The players expressed their frustrations in the comments portion of the said post. Some players already caught a lot of rare Pokémon, but due to the ban, they will have to start again from square one.  

According to an iDigital Times post, the move by Niantic is a precautionary measure to prevent players from hacking Pokémon GO Plus which is an added wearable peripheral that will be released some time next week.

The said rooted and jailbroken device ban ruling was incorporated with the latest update which included the "buddy system" to gaining more candy rewards. It also included major to minor bug fixes addressing performance and compatibility issues.