Pokémon Go Support for Android 4 KitKat Ends July

Niantic revealed that Pokémon Go will end its support for devices that run on Android 4 KitKat. Players whose devices that continue to have this operating system will be unable to access the game starting July 1. Accordingly, players who have Android 4 need to upgrade their operating system if they want to have uninterrupted access to Pokémon Go.

Niantic clarified that users affected are those that have Android 4 installed on their devices. Players that have iOS, or even those with at least Android 5, are not affected by this announcement and do not need to take any action.

According to Niantic, the Android 4 operating system was first released back in 2013. Since then, there have been a number of major improvements implemented to the Android operating systems. By removing any support for Android 4, Niantic said that this will allow them to be able to streamline their development process. In addition, doing this also means that the developers can now focus their resources in supporting the newer operating systems.

Niantic revealed that a large number of players that use Android have in fact upgraded to at least Android 5. When players upgrade from an old operating system to a newer one, Niantic revealed that on their end, they are able to update the supported device requirements in order to better serve the devices that their playerbase use.

To check what operating system they are using, players first need to go to Settings, then click System and About.

In order to upgrade to Android 5, players can follow these steps:

1. Open your device's Settings app Settings app.
2. Near the bottom, tap System and then Advanced and then System update. If you don't see "Advanced," tap About phone.
3. You'll see your update status. Follow any steps on the screen.

Niantic added that this change also affects players of Ingress.

Released in 2016, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic for both the Android and iOS. Upon release, it was praised for its concept but heavily criticized for now largely resolved technical issues at launch. Pokémon Go reached 1 billion downloads by February of this year and as of December 2018, reported a worldwide gross of at least $3 billion.