If you are still using old smartphones then you might have some bad news. Because the world’s popular instant messaging app WhatsApp will not be working on some selected smartphones after December 31, 2018. To recall, The Facebook-owned company WhatsApp announced over a couple of years ago on its blog that it would kill support for a list of operating systems by the end of 2018.
Already WhatsApp support for Windows Phone 8.0, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 was ended on December 31, 2017, and now the app will not support for the Nokia S40 series phones in 2019, and some older Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread smartphones and iPhones running iOS 7 in 2020. Even they are once said as premium phones but now they lost dominance in the market with their outdated software it seems.
WhatsApp stated that “The decision was taken because we will no longer be actively developing for these platforms and some features might stop functioning at any time. When we look ahead to our next seven years, we are looking to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms that a vast majority of people use. These platforms/phones don’t offer the kind of capabilities WhatsApp needs to expand its features in the future”.
Along with Nokia S40, the devices include Nokia Asha moniker lineup like Asha 201, Asha 205, Asha, 206, Asha 208, Asha 210, Asha 230, Asha 301, Asha 500, Asha 501, Asha 502, Asha 503, and Asha 505 devices are not able to use WhatsApp.However, the devices which are running on the older Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread and older version will be ending WhatsApp support after February 1, 2020. This might not affect many users as there is only 0.3 per cent of the Android smartphones are running Android Gingerbread platform.
If you are the one snakebitten who use you will have to switch to a newer device to continue using WhatsApp. WhatsApp is currently supported on Android devices running Gingerbread (v2.3.3) or above and on iOS devices running version 8 or later.
If you are a Nokia lover and want a smartphone at cheap cost then you can try the Nokia 3.1 (which costs below Rs 10,000), one can enjoy the latest features of WhatsApp without having to worry about deadlines for app support.
