The Facebook-owned company, WhatsApp, is gradually phasing out support for older versions of the mobile operating system due to security and privacy reasons. In the past also, the messaging platform dropped support for many Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone devices, and now the company has again updated its list.
WhatsApp will Not work on These Smartphones
Now WhatsApp has again issued a warning regarding the discontinuation of services in some of the devices supporting older versions of Android and iOS from February 1, 2020.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps worldwide and has more than 400 million users in India. The biggest reason behind the popularity of WhatsApp is its simplicity and the number of features it offers to a large number of users. Also, the best part about this messaging platform is that it allows you to get in touch with your friends and family in a group video or voice chat without any fee.
As per the company’s support page, WhatsApp will stop working on below mentioned operating systems from February 1, 2020.
- The phones running Android 2.3.7 and older
- The phones running iOS 8 and older
- The phones featuring Windows OS
“For these operating systems, you can no longer create new accounts, nor reverify existing accounts. However, you’ll be able to continue using WhatsApp until February 1, 2020.” the messaging firm said.
The messaging app had also withdrawn support for all Windows phones from December 31, 2019, coincidentally Microsoft also ended support of its Windows 10 Mobile OS on the same day. However, you still have the option of exporting your chats before WhatsApp becomes non-functional in your devices.
The blog also mentions that the app will no longer work on Android phones running on 2.3.7 and older versions. WhatsApp is assured that the move will not affect a larger crowd as the majority of users have upgraded to the latest versions of the operating systems.
According to a spokesperson of the messaging app, 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.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp is making a lot of changes in the app to improve the overall user-experience. They have recently rolled out the dark mode feature for the Android beta user and are also contemplating on rolling the feature out for iOS users soon. Apart from the dark mode, WhatsApp has also given its users the option to use animated stickers during chats.
