If you opened your phone this morning to a notification telling you the Leap Top-Up app would stop working on Android 5, you probably did a double-take. You’re not alone. The message landed on Android devices across Ireland regardless of which version of the OS people are actually running, causing predictable confusion among users who had no idea what any of it meant.
What the Notification Actually Says
The alert reads: “Leap Top-up app will no longer work on Android 5 and older versions from 19 March. Please upgrade to a more recent Android version and reinstall the App.”
That’s a perfectly reasonable message to send to someone still running Android 5. The problem is it appears to have gone out to everyone, including people running Android 15 and 16.
Should You Be Worried?
Almost certainly not. If you own a phone bought in the last several years, you are nowhere near Android 5. That version of the OS launched back in 2014. Devices still running it aren’t just old, they’re ancient by smartphone standards, and they haven’t received security patches in years. If you’re somehow still using one as a daily driver, moving on from it is genuinely good advice regardless of the Leap app situation.
For the overwhelming majority of users who received this notification, nothing is changing. Your app will continue to work as normal.
App Acting Up? Uninstall and Reinstall
The notification itself seems to have caused some odd behaviour for a handful of users. The straightforward fix is to uninstall the Leap Top-Up app and reinstall it fresh from the Play Store. Several users confirmed this cleared things up immediately, while others found that simply swiping the notification away did the trick.
How Did This Happen?
It looks like the notification went out without the version-targeting filter that should have limited it to Android 5 devices only. Instead of a targeted heads-up to a small group of legacy users, it became a mass alert to the entire Android user base. The code required to check a device’s Android version before sending a notification like this is genuinely straightforward stuff, which makes it a fairly embarrassing slip.
The Bigger Picture
The Leap app has a long and storied reputation for being a bit rough around the edges. Saved card functionality has been broken for many users for years, topping up sometimes requires re-entering a phone number that should already be on file, and now this. None of it is catastrophic, but it adds up to an experience that feels under-resourced for an app handling public transport payments across the country.
In the meantime, if you got the notification and your phone is from any time in the last decade: ignore it, do a reinstall if you’re seeing any weirdness, and carry on.
