Just a month after WhatsApp ended support for some of the older smartphone models, the Facebook-owned instant messaging platform has now added more devices to the list of the phones that won’t be able to run WhatsApp.
The company has updated its FAQ section and has included several Android and iOS phones that will not be able to run the application as the company has withdrawn support for older versions of OS from today, i.e. 1 February, 2020.
Starting today, Android smartphones running on Android 2.3.7 operating system and lower as well as iPhones running on iOS 8 and lower will not be compatible. The company has added that these versions of Android and iOS operating systems “can no longer create new accounts, nor re-verify existing accounts.”
In a statement, the company’s spokesperson said: “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.”
Given that most of the smartphones in use have been updated to newer versions of these operating systems, not many devices will be affected by this change but the count is still expected to be in millions.
However, these are millions on devices which will not be supported by WhatsApp and not millions of users of the platform. The company has also said that feature phones, the likes of JioPhone and JioPhone that runs KaiOS 2.5.1+ will still be supported by the company.
Last month, on 31st December 2019, the company withdrew support for Windows Phone operating system and stated that the company will “no longer actively develop for these operating systems, and thus, some features might stop functioning at any time.”
