If you’ve proudly been hanging on to an old phone handset for years and years, we have some bad news: you probably won’t be able to use Whatsapp for much longer.
Back in February, the ubiquitous messaging app announced that by the end of 2016 it would no longer be compatible with older phone models, meaning that Whatsapp will soon stop working on millions of phones. Goodbye, message history, goodbye group chats, goodbye dodging the blue tick…
‘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,’ the company revealed in a blog post marking Whatsapp’s seventh anniversary back in February.
‘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,’ they added.
The company claim that this move will make the messaging service more secure, allowing the app to put ‘greater emphasis on security features and more ways to stay in touch with the people that you care about.’
The app will no longer work on the Nokia S40 or Symbian S60, the Windows Phone 7, any phone that operates using Android 2.1 or 2.2 and the iPhone 3GS. And if you’ve been avoiding iOS updates for years, you’ll experience problems too: from the end of the year, Whatsapp won’t be supported on any Apple devices running iOS 6.
If you’re likely to be affected by the news, Whatsapp’s advice is simply to upgrade your handset. ‘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,’ the company wrote back in February. Since then, Whatsapp has confirmed that BlackBerry owners will still be able to use the app until June 2017. After this point, the app will no longer be compatible with any BlackBerry phones – including recent models.
So, if you’re on an old device and can’t bear the thought of being ousted from your group chats, it looks like investing in a new phone might be the only option. It’s a good thing Christmas is coming up…
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