WhatsApp Compatible Devices: These iPhones And Android Smartphones Won't Work Soon
WhatsApp is pulling support for the app on older smartphone models next week, the company announced. So if you're using the popular messaging app for you older iPhone or Android smartphone, you may have to find an alternative messaging service.
The list of devices that won't work with WhatsApp include an iPhone, two Blackberry smartphones, two Nokia gadgets and more mobile phones. Some people who use WhatsApp on older phone models will see support for the app disappear as early as Jan. 1, while certain Android users will no longer be able to use the app in 2020, according to an updated blog post on the platform’s site.
In the post, WhatsApp tried to explain how things have changed since the app was released in 2009.
“When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people's use of mobile devices looked very different from today,” WhatsApp said in the post originally written in 2016. “The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.”
Mobile Phones That Don’t Work With WhatsApp
WhatsApp listed the devices that no longer support the device. The platform said the gadgets “don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future.”
The mobile phones that don’t work with WhatsApp are: the Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7 and the iPhone 3GS, which was released in 2009. WhatsApp also won’t work on devices that run on Android 2.1, Android 2.2 and iOS 6, which was released in 2012. The end of WhatsApp shouldn’t affect many people who are on iOS 6, since only 0.04 percent of iOS users are on that version, according to data from Apteligent Research. The Android versions that no longer work with WhatsApp were released in 2009 and 2010.
WhatsApp listed the dates in which it will pull support for the app on additional mobile phones and versions:
BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10, after Dec. 31.
Windows Phone 8.0 and older, after Dec. 31.
Nokia S40 after Dec. 31, 2018
Android versions 2.3.7 and older after Feb. 1, 2020
“This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp,” the messaging app said.
The platform recommends users who will see changes to upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone to continue using the app.
The messaging app is currently one of the most popular chatting apps out there. WhatsApp announced earlier this year it had one billion people worldwide using the service every month and one billion daily active users.
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