WHATSAPP TO CUT OFF OLD PHONES
WHATSAPP will no longer support older phones, forcing millions of people to upgrade their handset if they want to continue using it.
The popular messaging app has over a billion users, but will stop working on certain mobiles because of changes in technology.
The company said in a blog post: “When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today.
“The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 per cent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.
“Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 per cent of sales today – were on less than 25 per cent of mobile devices sold at the time.”
WhatsApp last year announced it would stop running on a variety of models, including iPhones, Android phones and Windows phones.
And as of this week, the software will stop working on BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8.0 and older.
Support for the Nokia S40 will also stop after 2018, while Android versions 2.3.7 and older will cease to function from 2020.