Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp recently announced that it will soon stop working and supporting older devices.
They claimed that the move was necessary to ensure the safety of its users.
The official support for various versions of Android, iPhone and Windows phones will end on 1 February 2020.
WhatsApp will not work for iPhones running iOS 8 or earlier version that was introduced by Apple in 2014. It also means that people using iPhone 6 or newer version will not lose WhatsApp. In fact, the WhatsApp blog post recommends people to use the latest version of iOS.
People using Android phones having older version than 2.3.3 (known as Gingerbread) will also lose WhatsApp support. People trying to create a new account or verify an existing account with older Androids will be blocked.
Samsung, Huawei, Sony and Google smartphones are safe from not being supported by WhatsApp.
WhatsApp will continue its support to Windows Phones running the operating system Windows Phone 8.1 or beyond.
A user affected theoretically by WhatsApp can update their OS to continue using it. However, older phone models will either not be able to run it on the newer operating system or will not be allowed to install it.
This is not the first time WhatsApp is ending its support for older phones. It has previously done it for the sake of users’ security and functionality.
You can learn more from their blog and WhatsApp FAQ section