WhatsApp, the most famous messaging application platform, is used by almost 95 % smartphone users in India. However, there are a few smartphones that will not be able to use WhatsApp by the end of this year. According to statements by the popular application service, WhatsApp will be removed out from Symbian and BlackBerry BBOS this year. WhatsApp has announced that December 31, 2016, will be the last day for support on Symbian and BlackBerry smartphones. This will also include Nokia S40. WhatsApp also mentioned that older smartphone operating systems on Android, Windows and iOS will too face the same. The decision was being made since March 2016, but no final date for the final support was made, however, it is now clear.
Those who are having older Android, iOS and Windows phones and others having feature phones with Symbian and BBOS will be affected. The move from WhatsApp comes in since the market prediction reveals that feature phones will be overtaken by smartphones from 2017 onwards. Using WhatsApp on older smartphones and feature phones could pose a security threat later since there would be no more updates and security patches provided by WhatsApp. Third-party developers would opt for the versions and squeeze it in order to make them function. However, using a third-party or tweaked application is never recommended.
WhatsApp had announced the end of support for the said operating systems on their blog in February. ‘So, by the end of 2016, we will be dropping support for WhatsApp Messenger on the following mobile platforms:
BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10
Nokia S40
Nokia Symbian S60
Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
Windows Phone 7.1
iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don't offer the kind of abilities we need to expand our app's features in the future. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend update to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.’
