WhatsApp is an app that works across platforms. In fact, even affordable feature phones support the app.
Much to our surprise though, the super popular messaging app is basically ending support for a number of older operating systems which means that users won’t be able to create new accounts or reverify existing accounts on a number of old phones.
WhatsApp in a post on its FAQ page now mentions that users of phones running Android version 2.3.7 and older, as well as iPhones running iOS 7 and older, will no longer be supported after February 1, 2020. If you have an old phone lying around as a backup, you might want to read on to see if it’s on WhatsApp’s list of old phones to fish out.
Watch out for it
According to a tweet posted by WABetainfo, WhatsApp will also no longer support devices running on iOS8. However, users can still use WhatsApp on iOS 8 but won’t be able to verify the account if they reinstall it.
The latest/updated FAQ WhatsApp also asks feature users to switch to phones running KaiOS 2.5.1+, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.
But don’t panic just yet, this update shouldn’t affect you unless you have an old iPhone or Android phone lying around as a worst-case-scenario backup. But this is WhatsApp’s way of suggesting that they won’t be supporting age-old phones forever.
Spoken on its support page
WhatsApp has been adding up new features regularly and some of these features require powerful phones and newer Android and iOS versions to function properly.
Features like picture-in-picture video within chats, fingerprint authentication etc are resource heavy and require powerful phones with enough RAM and newer OS.
WhatsApp has said that some of the phones won’t be able to support the feature that it plans to bring in the future and that is why it is ending the support for them.