As the year is coming to an end, so is the final date for most devices that will no longer be supported by WhatsApp. The Facebook owned messaging app WhatsApp is shutting down for Windows phone after the 31st of December after which WhatsApp will not support these devices.
WhatsApp users were informed about this for months and given ample time to prepare for the change and upgrade their devices if they want to continue using the service in 2020.
The first devices which WhatsApp will no longer provide support for are Windows Phones and that means WhatsApp is shutting down for all these devices after December 31, 2019.
In order to continue using the messaging app, users of these devices will need to upgrade from their current Windows Phones to something newer.
However, Windows Phone devices aren’t the only ones that will be facing a block from WhatsApp as the messaging app, WhatsApp is shutting down for some older Android phones as well as iPhones too just a month after Windows Phones.
WhatsApp will no longer function for these Android phones and iPhones after February 1st, 2020. These devices include Android phones running an Android version version older than 2.3.7 and for iOS devices it’s iOS 7 or older, meaning all versions of Android and iOS newer than the ones mentioned will continue to have WhatsApp functionality after the given date.
This isn’t the first time WhatsApp has done something like this and ended support for old smartphones. A few years ago, the company ended it’s support for the Nokia Symbian S60 devices on June 30, 2017 and shortly after that the support for Blackberry OS and Blackberry 10 was pulled on December 31, 2017. Last year, the company ended its support for the Nokia S40 on December 31, 2018.
According to WhatsApp this has been a tough decision and they need to focus on devices the majority of people use and end support for older ones. WhatsApp mentioned this in a blog post saying:
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.
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 to continue using WhatsApp.
Now this is a reminder for everyone using these older devices to upgrade to newer devices which are still supported if they want to continue using the services after said dates.
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