WhatsApp will cease to function on 49 makes of phone, including the iPhone 5 and 5c along with several Android models from Samsung, Huawei and LG. People with older iPhone and Android models will be unable to use the popular messaging app after December 31 without getting an upgrade. While these phone models have not been phased out and are still very much in the market, the WhatsApp upgrade will, however, affect them as their operating systems will not be compatible with WhatsApp’s new features. It was gathered that users will be notified with a warning message before the app stops working.
“To keep up with the latest advances in tech, we routinely stop supporting older operating systems to point our resources to supporting the latest ones.
“If we stop supporting your operating system, you’ll be notified and reminded a few times to upgrade your device to continue using WhatsApp.
“Devices and software change often, so we regularly review what operating systems we support and make updates,” said a statement from WhatsApp explaining the move.
“These devices also might not have the latest security updates, or might lack the functionality required to run WhatsApp.
“To choose what to stop supporting, every year we, like other technology companies, look at which devices and software are the oldest and have the fewest number of people still using them.
“To update your operating system on an iPhone go to the ‘general’ settings and select ‘software update’.
