One of the original advantages of WhatsApp that made it popular was its availability across a wide number of platforms. This is changing beginning February 2020. For the majority of us, it won’t be an issue, but for those who are hanging on to older devices for different reasons may soon find themselves without access to one of their favorite applications. Most people are using WhatsApp on a recent phone, but there are still a sizeable number of people that will lose support for their device with an upcoming update. The phones that won’t work with WhatsApp are still okay for now, but the support will be pulled over the next couple of years. The list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp wasn’t broadcast publicly, it was sneakily added into an update to an old blog post titled “support for older operating systems.” According to the post, the company will disable support for the phones that won’t work with WhatsApp as of February 1, 2020. While some of us may be disappointed that WhatsApp won’t be supported on their devices, it’s almost two years away before support drops so there’s currently no need to panic. With such a long time before the app is finally dropped, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the majority of people to upgrade to a supported device within the coming months. This advance notice will be helpful as it allows people to start saving for a more modern device. Related Article: How to change your number on WhatsApp.
The phones that won’t work with WhatsApp are devices running:
Android versions older than 2.3.3 Windows Phone 8.0 and older iPhone 3GS/iOS 6 Nokia Symbian S60 BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10
Users of phones on these devices have already been blocked from making new WhatsApp accounts, but users with existing accounts can continue using the service on their phone until that February 2020 deadline. If you’re currently using a device with those operating system, WhatsApp recommends upgrading your phone to a more modern device with at least the following requirements:
Android running OS 4.0+ iPhone running iOS 8+ Windows Phone 8.1+
WhatsApp spokesman gave a statement saying that “These platforms don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future”. “Once you have one of these devices, simply install WhatsApp and verify your phone number on the new device. Keep in mind that WhatsApp can only be activated with one phone number on one device at a time,” as written on WhatsApp official website. “There’s currently no option to transfer your chat history between platforms. However, we provide the option to send your chat history attached to an email.” Added the article. The list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp is mainly centered on some very old technology. With the cutoff date almost two years away, we certainly have plenty of time to make sure we can continue using our favorite messaging app. Above is a list of all the phones that will not support WhatsApp very soon. Feature Photo source: WhatsApp Website.
