The most popular instant messaging application “WhatsApp” has stopped working on older smart phones. Consumers using a smart phone running on Android 2.2 Froyo or older versions of Android, and iPhone 3GS or iOS 6 and lower versions of iOS users will be unable to use WhatsApp on their smart phones. Remarkably, the market share of these devices is pretty low – 0.1% for devices running Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.6% for devices running iOS 6, and the iPhone 3GS is itself a 7-year-old obsolete phone. Windows Phone 7 users will also be affected in the same manner.
WhatsApp officials have advised that anyone with the above mentioned older handsets have to upgrade or buy new smart phones to keep using WhatsApp in the future.
“We are extending support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia Symbian S60 and Nokia S40 until June 30, 2017,” revealed by the company.
The changes are perhaps large to allow WhatsApp to profoundly integrate encryption and other privacy services. Such technology stops messages from being read, and has led to WhatsApp facing criticism from governments who believe that WhatsApp conversations should be made public.
More feature updates are also expected to roll out in the future.
WhatsApp Stops Working on Older Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Models
