WhatsApp Terminating Support For Android Gingerbread, BlackBerry 10 & Other Platforms

In time for its eighth anniversary, WhatsApp has decided to announce the dates when it is ending support for certain mobile platforms including Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread and BlackBerry’s BlackBerry 10 OS. The company has warned owners of devices running the affected platforms that some features of the messaging app would no longer function for them when the specified dates arrive.

Last year, Facebook-owned company WhatsApp explained in a blog post why it decided to terminate support for select mobile platforms. Apparently, the decision it reached then was heavily influenced by the present market as compared to the market when WhatsApp was launched back in 2009. At the time, around 70 percent of smartphones were from BlackBerry and Nokia. At present, 99.5 percent of smartphones sold are from Apple, Microsoft and mostly from company’s that come up with devices using Google’s Android OS.

Given the drastic change in the main players in the smartphone market, it’s easy to see why WhatsApp is making some changes to its supported platforms. As it looks forward to the future, it intends to focus its efforts on the mobile platforms that most people use. When WhatsApp voiced out this plan last year, it did not have specific dates for the termination of support for mobile platforms back then. This week though, the company has already updated its blog post and published the list of dates that users should watch out for.

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According to WhatsApp, its app will no longer support Android version 2.3.7 and below after Feb. 1, 2020. This gives users of older Android OS versions three more years to enjoy the app and enough time to switch to more updated handsets. Phone Arena reports that based on the latest official numbers, only around 0.8 percent of total Android users account for Android Gingerbread. This means only around tens of thousands of consumers are still using Android devices with outdated software. It is therefore commendable for WhatsApp and parent company Facebook to take these people into consideration before cutting off support for their mobile devices.

While WhatsApp is giving more time for Android Gingerbread users to enjoy its cross-platform instant messaging application, the company is surely not doing the same thing for Nokia Symbian S60 users. The deadline for this platform is on June 30, 2017. This means that less than two weeks from now, users of Nokia phones running this platform will experience some problems when accessing the app.

WhatsApp has also announced the Dec. 31, 2017 deadline for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8.0 and older as well as Nokia S40. Therefore, consumers who are still stuck with mobile devices running any of these platforms should switch to newer devices come New Year’s Day if they want to continue using the different features of WhatsApp and its messaging service.

“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. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone,” WhatsApp stated in the blog post.