WhatsApp Will Stop Running on Millions of Smartphones by 2016-End. Is Your Phone on the List?

WhatsApp is ending support for older Smartphone operating systems, as the Facebook-owned messaging giant was phasing out compatibility with older Smartphones in a technology upgrade aimed at expanding its features in 2017.

With over a billion users worldwide, the world’s most popular messaging service WhatsApp will stop running on millions of Smartphones by the end of 2016. Only if their users upgrade their old Smartphones’ operating software or upgrade to newer Smartphones, will this be avoided.

In February, WhatsApp announced it would end support for older Smartphone operating systems by the end of the year, as the Facebook-owned messaging giant was phasing out compatibility with older Smartphones in a technology upgrade aimed at expanding its features in 2017.

In an official blogpost, a WhatsApp spokesperson stated:

“As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus 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 some mobile platforms. While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future.

“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 before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”

Mobile platforms that will not be able to run WhatsApp in 2017 include Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, Windows Phone 7, and iPhone 3GS/ iOS 6. Any iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 that has not been updated to iOS 10 – Apple’s new operating system software for iPhone and iPad – would also not support WhatsApp. However, WhatsApp is extending support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40, and Nokia Symbian S60 until June 30, 2017.
WhatsApp has already started adding a slew of new features to its application. Video calling and animated GIFs were launched last month on iPhone, Android and Windows phone devices. New camera features were added, so the users could place emoji stickers or draw photos, and attach videos to chats.  WhatsApp already provides end-to-end 256-bit encryption for all its messages, but it recently added two-step verification to provide an extra layer of security to curb identity theft.