WhatsApp Will Stop Working On Millions Of Smartphones Worldwide By 2020

WhatsApp is making big changes to its system which might affect millions of Android and iOS users. In addition, the company also announced that it has already stopped support for phones using the Windows 10 Mobile operating system.

WhatsApp users running the popular messaging app on iOS devices running older versions of the mobile operating system have less than two months to upgrade to meet the app’s new requirements. In a recent blog post, the company announced that starting February 1, 2020, the app will only support Apple devices running on iOS 9 or later versions.

“WhatsApp for iPhone requires iOS 9 or later,” the company announced. “On iOS 8, you can no longer create new accounts or reverify existing accounts. If WhatsApp is currently active on your iOS 8 device, you'll be able to use it until February 1, 2020.”

To prevent any disruption or future issues, the company suggested that iOS users need to install the latest version of the operating system. “For the best experience, we recommend you use the latest version of iOS available for your phone,” the statement added. “Please visit the Apple Support website to learn how to update your iPhone's software.”

While the company does not specifically prohibit the use of jailbroken or unlocked iOS devices, there is a possibility that WhatApp running on these gadgets might encounter some issues when the upgrade arrives. “However, because these modifications might affect the functionality of your device, we can't provide support for devices using modified versions of the iPhone's operating system,” the company said.

The app’s upgrade will also affect some Android users. Older phones running on Android version 2.3.7 and older will be affected by February 1, 2020 as well, according to CorkBeo.

WhatsApp users with phones running on Microsoft’s mobile operating system will be affected as well. In fact, support for devices running on Windows 10 Mobile is no longer supported since December 10, 2019, according to Daily Mail.

However, the app will continue its support for certain phones running on the Linux operated KaiOS 2.5.1 or older systems. These include the Jio Phone and Jio Phone 2, which are popular in its home market in India.

The company admitted that withdrawing support for older model phones was a hard but necessary decision. “While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future,” WhatsApp earlier explained.

The company suggested that users upgrade their devices to get the most of what the app has to offer. “If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone to continue using WhatsApp,” the company said.