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.
Take note fellow #WhatsApp @WhatsApp users, @pennyjamesITV explains changes to old #phones https://t.co/JiPiyGWj4P
— Olivia Le Poidevin (@LivvyLepoids) December 2, 2016
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.”
Some may miss out on Whatsapp in 2017. Time to check if your device will be compatible with Whatsapp.
https://t.co/pYj9KZqQ6r #whatsapp— Audrey Chiweshenga (@audychiwy) December 5, 2016
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.
#whatsapp New features that make WhatsApp even better https://t.co/huZPMUPlga #news
— WhatsApp News (@whatsappnews) December 7, 2016
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Yowsup
what happens with the open framework yowsup (www.openwhatsapp.org) after this upgrade, will it still be working?
GOOD
Your website is broken, it keeps on taking me up and down the page and I can’t read any article. The cursor doesn’t stand still and keeps scrolling up and down. Only happens with your web page.
This is a new problem as I am a regular reader.
My smart phone is new or is old smart phone?
how you’ll working ….after upgrading
Comment: Bharat is my new job part time please
Whatsapp has now given BlackBerry users until June 2017 .No need to change to Android in the meantime.
In six months time many things can happen. I am sticking to my faithful blackberry until last minute. I will then use We Chat which is identical to Whatsapp.
It is most likely the mandate to deprecate CBC ciphers in TLS, leaving TLS/1.0 and TLS/1.1 dead. I don’t have my list of Android OS’ handy, but I know my Note 2 and 3 will only work with TLS/1.0, and they are at the latest that Samsung/AT&T publish. 4.3 maybe?
A little thin on the details of this story.