WhatsApp has made an important announcement that will immediately affect a large number of people since their devices might become incompatible with the messaging app. The details of which types of devices and their operating systems have been revealed in an update to WhatsApp’s mobile devices support page. The reason cited by the messaging app for this withdrawal of the facility to run the app on these devices is that they will not be able to handle all the features that WhatsApp plans to keep introducing on its app.
In listing out the details of the devices, it has also been clarified that while some of these devices may see WhatsApp not working on them with immediate effect some are set to lose the support by the end of this calendar year. There are a couple of devices that may receive the support for a maximum of 2 years. The minimum requirement will be for the devices to be running on Android version 4.0 or later and iOS 7 and later versions for iPhones.
The details of the devices are as below:
Nokia handsets, those still on the Nokia S40 OS or the Nokia Asha series phones will not support WhatsApp anymore. Add the Nokia Symbian S60 also to it.
Android 2.1 (Eclair) and 2.2 (Froyo) are out of the window. Phones running on the Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) are the ones which will be given the 2-year period to migrate.
When it comes to the iPhones, it is iOS 6 that gets the boot and the iPhone 3GS has been mentioned as a device that won’t be able to run WhatsApp.
Windows Phone 7.0 and 8.0 will also not be getting updates from WhatsApp. Similarly, Blackberry OS and older versions of the OS will be out of reckoning.
If you were clinging on to any of these old devices and using WhatsApp is crucial, then you have no choice but to either go for a new one or upgrade to a more latest version of the OS that your device can support.