As of late, people have been talking about problems with rooted Android devices. This initially struck me as odd, since the whole “rooted devices can’t play Pokémon is pretty old news. So I dug a little deeper.
A new update has come out for select Android phones, tablets, etc, that allows installed apps to see what other files you have on your device. This means that apps like Pokémon GO can look and see if a rooted device has the “rooting files” installed and if they have any cheating software installed.
This new change has caused a mild upset amongst rooted users. Many folks believe that rooting their phone, which eliminates any and all restrictions previously set by the manufacturer, is preferred, as it allows a greater degree of freedom and control over their own devices. This also allows for the installation of software that does things like spoofs a player’s location, and some that could actually play the game for you.
In an effort to reduce cheating and bots, developer Niantic has an anti-root catch in Pokémon GO. If the game notices that the phone it’s on has been modified in a certain way, it will reject the player from the game servers. Since it’s now easier to know if a phone was rooted, more individuals have been seeing this “soft-block.” This is problematic for those who have a rooted device but do not participate in cheating of any kind.
iPhone users and users with a factory standard Android device will have likely not noticed any change.