POPULAR MESSAGING app WhatsApp, in 2016 had said that it will stop its support of outdated devices.
The Facebook-owned company had said that the app will stop running on many older smartphones including iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia, Android and BlackBerry.
Meanwhile, as a change of heart, WhatsApp had decided that it will be extending its support for BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS, Nokia Symbian and Nokia S40 until the end of June 2017.
In December 2016 itself, many other old smartphones did, however, lose the support of the popular messaging application.
But perhaps you do not have to worry as if specifications are taken into consideration then not too many devices will get affected, especially on iOS and Android.
So if your device still runs the iOS 6, WhatsApp has already ended its support and it is the same case with Windows 7 mobiles. But now, by the end of this month, the app will stop working on BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS, Nokia Symbian and Nokia S40 too. For Android, the support for WhatsApp ends for devices which are running on Android 2.1 and Android 2.2 while for Windows it is devices with Windows 7 as their OS.
When it comes to Apple devices the iPhone 3GS and iPhones still run on iOS 6. There are way too fewer phones with the Android specifications. According to the Google’s dashboard in November this year, only 0.1% smartphones still run on Android Froyo. So if you have an Android IceCream Sandwich or the Android Jelly Bean then you need not worry as of now.
Apple’s data from October this year, suggest that about 8 percent of smartphones run on iOS below the iOS9 version.
WhatsApp in its previous blog had said that the support for the messaging app will end on many smartphones because they do not ‘offer the kind of capabilities’ needed by it to expand the features of the app. WhatsApp, with more than a billion monthly active users, has become the world’s most popular instant messaging app.
These devices will not run WhatsApp anymore:
BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10
Nokia S40
Nokia Symbian S60
Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
Windows Phone 7
iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
According to some reports, WhatsApp is planning on coming up with a ‘recall’ feature on its app, where users can revoke messages even after sending them. WhatsApp might also roll out another feature which will enable users to change their numbers within the app itself. If the user changes the number, a notification can be sent to chosen or all contacts about the switch.
