The clock is ticking for some mobile platforms when it comes to WhatsApp updates. The Facebook-owned instant messaging app will end support for some smartphone platforms by the end of 2017. The company announced the news on its official website.
The popular messaging app will end support for operating systems from BlackBerry, Microsoft Windows and Nokia. According to WhatsApp's blog on devices nearing end-of-life timelines, users of BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10; Windows Phone 8.0 and older devices; and Nokia S40 will not be able to use WhatsApp properly after after December 31, 2017.
"Because we will no longer actively develop for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time," says the company, adding "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 is not the first time that WhatsApp is ending support for old mobile platforms. In February last year too, the company had announced a list of devices/platforms that it ceased support for.
These included Android 2.1 and Android 2.2; Windows Phone 7 and Android 2.1 and Android 2.2; and Windows Phone 7. The list also had a version of Apple's mobile operating system iOS, iPhone 3GS/iOS 6. This list also included BlackBerry OS and Nokia S40 platform, the date for these was later changed to June 2017 and then again to December 2017. This means these platforms have already recieved extensions twice.
In June this year the company ended support for Nokia S60 platform. Other than these, the blogpost also reveals that all smartphones running on Android versions 2.3.7 and older will lose WhatsApp support after February 1, 2020.
However, this is unlikely to hurt too many Android smartphone users as per the latest Android Distribution Numbers (December 2017) Android versions 2.3.7 (or Gingerbread) runs on some 0.4% devices.
The most popular Android version as per the list is Android 6.0 Marshmallow that launched in 2015. It runs on almost 30% Android smartphones worldwide.