WhatsApp to stop working on millions of old devices in 2020

Facebook the social media that owns WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging apps around the world will soon withdraw support for a lot of old devices running the app including iOS, Android and even Windows phone. WhatsApp will stop working on millions of phones in the coming year.

According to WhatsApp, it will withdraw support for a lot of devices by February 1st, 2020. The devices will include iPhones running iOS 8 or older versions and Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread and older.

For Windows devices WhatsApp is said to withdraw support for all Windows phones from December 31st, 2019. This is somewhat understandable since Microsoft itself is ending support for Windows 10 mobile OS. Although some sources still say otherwise and according to them only Windows Phone 8.1 or earlier will be affected but we have been hearing for a while that all Windows phone will be affected. Hopefully this will be clarified in the coming days.

WhatsApp made a blog post saying:

On iOS 8, you can no longer create new accounts or reverify existing accounts,
If WhatsApp is currently active on your iOS 8 device, you’ll be able to use it until February 1, 2020.

Users are already unable to make new accounts and re-verify existing accounts on their devices. People currently running WhatsApp on these older OS will be able to continue using them until 1st of February 2020 according to the company.

WhatsApp said in a blogspot:

For the best experience, we recommend you use the latest version of iOS available for your phone,

Further stating:

because we no longer actively develop for these operating systems, some features might stop functioning at any time.

This isn’t the first time WhatsApp has done something like this and according to the company this is always a tough decision to ensure proper service and security. The company posted:

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.

So if you’re running an older OS version for your smartphone, you should check for updates to your OS and install them if any are available otherwise support for WhatsApp on your phone will be ending soon.

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