WhatsApp is among the most used chatting apps around the world. It will naturally come across as unfortunate news for you to know that the company plans on dropping support for certain, “older” devices by the end of 2016. Thus, you may want to consider upgrading your device if you want to continue using the chatting app. The Facebook-owned social-messaging app made an official announcement, stating that the platform will no longer be functional on older devices due to technical reasons.
“Earlier this week, WhatsApp turned seven years old. It has been an amazing journey and in the coming months, we’re putting an even greater emphasis on security features and more ways to stay in touch with the people that you care about,” WhatsApp published a blog a few days ago. “But anniversary dates are also an opportunity to look back. When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 per cent 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 per cent of sales today – were on less than 25 per cent of mobile devices sold at the time,” the blog continued.
“As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus on our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use. So, by the end of 2016, we will be ending support for WhatsApp Messenger on the following mobile platforms: BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, Windows phone 7, iPhone 3GS/iOS 6,” WhatsApp added, while announcing their decision.
The company feels that the above mentioned devices do not offer the kind of abilities that are essentially required in order to expand their app’s reach. Another note at the end of their blog suggested that they have extended support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60 until June 30, 2017. However, support for all other devices mentioned above will end in less than a month’s time period i.e. by the end of 2016.