The Good News Is ‘Pokemon Go’ Adds Buddies, But The Bad News Is It Now Blocks Jailbroken Devices

Pokemon Go may not be the all-encompassing cultural phenomenon it once was, but there are still tens of millions out there catching ’em all, and developer Niantic has begun rolling out a new update. This update squashes some bugs and adds support for the Pokemon Go Plus accessory, but its most exciting new feature is the addition of buddy Pokemon.

You can now choose to have your favorite critter follow you around sans Pokeball, like Pikachu does in the Pokemon anime. Your friend will appear with your avatar on the trainer screen, but buddy Pokemon are more than an aesthetic thing – your pals will also pick up candy as you walk with them. So, if you want to evolve a certain Pokemon, you no longer have to catch dozens of them in order to collect enough evolution-initiating sweets. Instead, you can just make that Pokemon your buddy and collect candy that way. You can check out how the buddy system works in the video at the top of this post.

Unfortunately, the new Pokemon Go update isn’t without its drawbacks, as it also removes support for any jailbroken/rooted iOS and Android devices. Jailbreaking gives you root access to a device’s file system, allowing users to get around restrictive mobile operating systems – according to reports, around 7.5 percent of iOS devices and a whopping 27 percent of Android devices are jailbroken/rooted, so Niantic is cutting a pretty good chunk of users out of the loop. Of course, there are ways to circumvent this new ban, but I’ll let you clever jailbreakers figure that out on your own.

The latest Pokemon Go app will slowly be released to all users over the next couple days.