Whatsapp will stop working on older smartphones this year. The company has announced that it will be ending its support for these devices in the near future, meaning you’ll need to upgrade your phone if you want to continue using Whatsapp.
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The Facebook-owned messaging service is yet another casualty of the app’s “no more updates” policy – which means no new features or bug fixes are coming either. The price to pay for the owners of older smartphones is that the app can no longer be supported on their smartphone models.
News that WhatsApp will stop working on older smartphones is not surprising to many as rumours started to circulate towards the end of last year. However, WhatsApp never came out to make any formal statements on the topic despite the state of panic amongst its users.
WhatsApp has now shared a list of iOS and Android devices that will no longer support the messaging app starting November 1st. The listed devices will not have the capability to support the Facebook-owned application and hence are incompatible.
As the application stops working on a number of devices, this will allow it to centre its focus and efforts on the latest generation smartphones, these are devices with more functionality which will help the app provide an optimal service to its users.
A look at the listed devices reveals that they are those with an operating system equal to or lower than Android 4.0.3. In the case of iPhone models, devices with iOS 9 and earlier. The devices lack the ability to support WhatsApp updates.
The complete list of smartphones that will not support WhatsApp
Android
- Samsung: Galaxy Trend Lite, Galaxy Trend II, Galaxy SII, Galaxy S3 mini, Galaxy Xcover 2, Galaxy Core and Galaxy Ace 2.
- LG: Lucid 2, Optimus F7, Optimus F5, Optimus L3 II Dual, Optimus F5, Optimus L5, Optimus L5 II, Optimus L5 Dual, Optimus L3 II, Optimus L7, Optimus L7 II Dual, Optimus L7 II, Optimus F6, Enact , Optimus L4 II Dual, Optimus F3, Optimus L4 II, Optimus L2 II, Optimus Nitro HD and 4X HD, and Optimus F3Q.
- ZTE: Grand S Flex, ZTE V956, Grand X Quad V987 and Grand Memo.
- Huawei: Ascend G740, Ascend Mate, Ascend D Quad XL, Ascend D1 Quad XL, Ascend P1 S, and Ascend D2.
- Sony: Xperia Miro, Sony Xperia Neo L, Xperia Arc S.
- Alcatel: One Touch Evo 7
- Others: Archos 53 Platinum, HTC Desire 500, Caterpillar Cat B15, Wiko Cink Five, Wiko Darknight, Lenovo A820, UMi X2, Faea F1 and THL W8.
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iOS
- Apple iPhone SE
- Apple iPhone 6S
- Apple iPhone 6S Plus
Although WhatsApp will no longer support the listed devices, that does not mean that the app will stop working immediately.
WhatsApp will however continue working on Androids running OS 4.1 and newer, iPhones running iOS 10 and newer, select phones running KaiOS 2.5.1 newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.
If you are still not sure whether your device will continue to support WhatsApp or not, you can follow these steps. Users can first check their device software to be sure.
- iPhone users can go to Settings > General > Software update.
- Android users can go to Settings > System > System update.
After checking that your OS is still eligible, then you can just update to the latest version. Owners of the affected devices are advised to back up all their chats to avoid losing them permanently.
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