WhatsApp will no longer work on these phones; is yours one of them?
WhatsApp has issued a statement detailing which smartphones it won’t be supported on come February 1, 2020.
WhatsApp has been adopted by over a billion people across the world and its popularity knows no bounds. The instant messaging app is so successful that it not just works cross-platform on desktops and smartphones but is also available on feature phones as well. However, while WhatsApp aims to be available on as many devices as possible, they often discontinue support on devices that will hamper the overall experience. So, if you have an older smartphone, then this bit of information will be extremely useful to you as your device may soon be not able to support WhatsApp.
As per a recent report, WhatsApp is killing off support for handsets that run on older operating systems which essentially means that you won’t get the option to create new accounts or verify existing accounts on a wide range of older handsets. As a part of its FAQs, WhatsApp states that users running Android v2.3.7 and older and iPhones running iOS 7 and older won’t be supported after 2020.
While this warning is issued for older operating systems and in all likelihood, won’t affect most users, it’s still worth keeping in mind which OS the app will be supported on. According to a report by WABetainfo, WhatsApp will also discontinue supporting iOS 8 iPhones; however, you can still use the messaging service on iOS 8 — you just won’t be able to verify your account if you reinstall it.
WhatsApp also asks feature phone users to upgrade to handsets running KaiOS 2.5.1+ and these include handsets such as the JioPhone and JioPhone 2.