WhatsApp's support to old devices to end after 31st: PTA

WhatsApp has announced ending support for older devices including all window phones operating systems after December 31, 2019, and resultantly millions of phones would stop functioning.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) while quoting WhatsApp has warned that WhatsApp is ending support for older devices.

WhatsApp in it's a blog post has mentioned that it is ending support for older devices. WhatsApp was launched in 2009. About 70 percent of smart phones sold at that time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia.

WhatsApp management has decided ending support for certain phones and operating systems details of which are given below: ending support for all window phone operating systems after December 31, 2019; ending support for android versions 2.3.7 and older ones after February 1, 2020; and ending support for IPhone IOS 7 and older after February 1, 2020.

As active development has stopped for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time, the company said in its blog post while announcing the abovementioned cut-off dates.

According to the management, when they started WhatsApp in 2009, people's use of mobile devices looked very different from what it is at present. The Apple app store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smart phones 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 percent of sales today - were of less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.

WhatsApp has already ended support for BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, Windows Phone 7 and iPhone 3GS/iOS 6 by the end of 2016.

"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. This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp," maintained the management.