The WhatsApp team suspends the messenger on many iPhones and Android smartphones (Topic)

Only a few months are left until the moment when WhatsApp, whose support periodically ceases to extend to operating systems that have lost their relevance, will again exclude several outdated versions of Android and iOS from its ranks. Users of devices with such software have two options: update the gadget's firmware or purchase a more modern smartphone.

Messenger is not for everyone

According to the official blog of the messenger, WhatsApp is no longer supporting all smartphones with Windows Phone installed. The application will stop working on such devices on the eve of the New Year, that is, December 31, 2019. The developer himself stopped supporting the Windows Phone platform - back in 2017, Microsoft officially announced the termination of its further development.

Android version 2.3.7 and iOS 8 will not escape a similar fate. The first release took place in 2010, the eighth iOS - in 2014. WhatsApp will no longer be supported on February 1, 2020. This means that users will not be able to re-identify an existing profile (for example, after reinstalling the messenger) or create a new one.

What will happen to WhatsApp

In 2019, WhatsApp was the most visited messenger in the world. Its global audience turned out to be more than 1.6 billion people, overtaking Chinese WeChat with its 1.11 billion and Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion). For this reason, the discontinuation of support for a number of mobile operating systems most likely will not make the WhatsApp messenger less popular. In addition, the share of the same Windows Phone in the global operating system market does not even reach 1%.

The number of users of outdated Android and iOS software platforms is also decreasing. So, the "fans" of Android OS, starting with build 4.3 and even older, were only 2.5% worldwide. According to world statistics, the most popular among all Android systems is version 6 (Marshmallow), which is distributed on 17.85% of devices. In comparison, the more recent Android 9 Pie covers 8.3% share. In the iOS environment, there are almost no owners of gadgets with a system version less than 9.0, and iOS 12.1 is considered the world leader among them (almost 30%).

WhatsApp, whose support depends on the relevance of the operating platform, regularly uses the practice of shutting down on outdated software versions. At the beginning of this year, the messenger stopped interacting with the Series 40 system, which was installed on Nokia devices. Thus, all phones (not smartphones) of the Finnish brand based on this system, which at one time were popular, especially in 2011, have lost the support of the messenger. Now ordinary Nokia cell phones are equipped with the KaiOS system, where WhatsApp is fully functional, but the platform version must be at least 2.5.1.

The Topic of Article: The WhatsApp team suspends the messenger on many iPhones and Android smartphones.
Author: Jake Pinkman