How to update a single pod without touching other dependencies

Make sure you have the latest version of CocoaPods installed.

$ pod update PODNAME was introduced recently.

See this issue thread for more information:

$ pod update

When you run pod update SomePodName, CocoaPods will try to find an updated version of the pod SomePodName, without taking into account the version listed in Podfile.lock. It will update the pod to the latest version possible (as long as it matches the version restrictions in your Podfile).

If you run pod update without any pod name, CocoaPods will update every pod listed in your Podfile to the latest version possible.