WhatsApp pulls support and you might be affected

Yesterday was an unfortunate day for users of older smartphones. (And even the less mainstream smartphones.) WhatsApp has decided that the time is up for them. WhatsApp pulls support and will not provide updates to the messenger on these devices. Meaning that they will have to go back to classic texting instead of WhatsApp’s brilliantly designed service.

All old devices will never receive an update again. Meaning that no new features will be available. Which, in the end, will render the application useless whenever they try to use it. And may cause major issues for people who use WhatsApp as a primary communication tool within their mobile devices. The announcement comes as the developers at WhatsApp said, “As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use.” and this is clearly the start of them moving forward.

Who is impacted?

The phones which are set to be disabled are all Blackberrys, Windows Phone 7 & 8.0, Nokia’s S40 & S60 and all phones which run android 2.1,2.2 and iOS 6. The developers then went on to recommend that users of the listed phones should upgrade to a newer phone if they wish to continue using WhatsApp. Some phones have had the changes put into effect at the start of the new year. But others will be occurring over time, the last one set to be disabled at the end of next year which is the Android 2.3.7 OS phones.

Most people will have a newer model phone these days but in case you haven’t, we advise you get one if you are an avid user of WhatsApp. Do you use WhatsApp? What are your thoughts on the whole ordeal? let me know.