Upcoming Pokémon GO update will drop support for iPhone 5/5c and older iPads

Developer Niantic Labs said Tuesday that an upcoming update to its popular augmented reality game Pokémon GO will remove existing support for devices like iPhone 5 and older iPads.

This change will take effect on February 28, 2018.

“After that date, trainers using affected devices may no longer be able to access their Pokémon GO accounts from that device, or use their PokéCoins or other items in their bags,” developers cautioned. To continue playing Pokémon GO, you’ll need to switch to a supported device.

The list of affected devices includes iOS hardware such as iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, the original iPad mini, iPad 2 and the second, third and fourth-generation iPad.

Niantic says that only iPhones and iPads compatible with iOS 11 will be able to run the next version of the game. This is likely due to the fact that the game was updated recently with support for Apple’s ARKit augmented reality framework that requires iOS 11.

“This change is a result of improvements to Pokémon GO that push the application beyond the capabilities of the operating systems on such devices,” said Niantic.

Pokémon GO is a free download from App Store.