For WhatsApp users currently using iOS 6 and all the smartphone models mentioned below, there will be no more support after the end of the year – as of 11:59 pm on December 31, 2016.
Why is WhatsApp Support Being Suspended on these Phones and Operating Systems?
Although these smartphones and OS versions have played a huge role in getting WhatsApp to over a billion users over the past few years – and the company acknowledges this – some new features that the chat app is releasing soon aren’t compatible with them. As such, WhatsApp is stopping support for these specific phones and operating system versions.
What does this mean to existing WhatsApp users?
If you’re using one of these phones or if your phone still has one of the operating system versions listed below, you’ll still be able to use WhatsApp. The only problem is, you won’t be able to upgrade to newer versions of WhatsApp that have the new features the company is promising.
Here’s a full list of phones and OS versions that will no longer have WhatsApp support as of next year, as published by WhatsApp, whose parent company is Facebook:
BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10
Nokia S40
Nokia Symbian S60
Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
Windows Phone 7.1
iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
So, if you’re currently on one of these devices/OS versions and you depend heavily on WhatsApp for your chatting needs, then you may need to either upgrade your phone or your OS to one that will support the new version of WhatsApp.
Some Interesting WhatsApp Usage Statistics
WhatsApp is not as popular in the United States as it is in other parts of the world like Latin America, Asia and Africa, but as of this year the user count in the U.S. is expected to cross 18 million. By 2020, it is estimated that more than 23 million users will have WhatsApp installed on their smartphones and tablets in the United States.
That might be a relatively low number considering that Snapchat has 60 million daily active users (DAUs) in North America and Facebook Messenger already has over 100 million monthly active users in the United States alone. However, 18 million monthly users on WhatsApp is certainly not a small figure.
As such, the number of users affected by this new announcement about WhatsApp support could be quite significant, especially those still on Nokia, Blackberry and Windows Phone devices.
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