Facebook-owned Whatsapp will end support for a few operating systems by the end of the year. And the devices includes BlackBerry 10 — an OS that last shipped on a new phone less than a year and a half ago. WhatsApp’s announcement also includes Nokia’s low-end S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7.1, Android 2.1 and Android 2.2.
The company, which was bought by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion, said the world has changed largely from the time the company started seven years ago.
The primary reason provided for stopping support for the older operating systems is that they simply do not offer the capability to support future development around WhatsApp.
The only failsafe route to continue using the WhatsApp service, though, is to upgrade your phone to a newer device.
WhatsApp wrote that the market right now comprises of 99% Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 and above devices. They said that the decision was “not an easy one to make” and that the market has evolved.
Switching to another platform might be a hard pill to swallow for lovers of BlackBerry and other mobile operating systems. But they will not be left with any other option.
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