its messaging app will
cease to work on older
phones and operating
systems as early as the end of
this year.
The announcement comes after
a warning earlier this year that
the Facebook-owned company
would be pulling support for
older models, and that the
deadline to upgrade was fast
approaching.
The same blog post was then
updated to say some phones
would be supported until June
30, 2017, while the service
would be discontinued on others
by the end of this year.
The blog says: "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.
"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."
Those using certain handsets
will have to buy new ones if
they want to use the world's
most popular messaging app,
which has a billion users
globally.
"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 ," a spokesperson
said.
iPHONE USERS
WhatsApp will stop working on
iPhone 3GS at the end of this
year.
It will also cease to function any
iPhone running iOS 6, so any
phone which hasn't been
updated to a later operating
system will lose WhatsApp.
The change also affects first,
second, third or fourth
generation iPads that haven't
been updated.
ANDROID USERS
WhatsApp will cease to function
on any Android tablet or phone
running Android 2.1 or 2.2.
This affects any phone released
between 2010 and 2011 which
hasn't been updated.
WINDOWS PHONE USERS
Anyone still using Windows
Phone 7 will not be able to use
WhatsApp anymore.
Blackberry and Nokia
users
People who have these phones
are safe until June
2017: BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry
10, Nokia S40 and Nokia
Symbian S60.
