WhatsApp to stop supporting older Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone devices

As the Facebook-owned company, WhatsApp turned seven years old this week, the messaging service said in its official blog post that when the service was launched in 2009, the popular platforms powering about 70 percent of devices were by BlackBerry and Nokia, and mobile operating systems offering by Google – Android, Apple and Microsoft, which today account for 99.5 percent of sales, were less than 25 percent at that time.

In a blog post published a few days ago, WhatsApp revealed that they will be withdrawing support for following mobile platforms:

• BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10
• Nokia S40
• Nokia Symbian S60
• Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
• Windows Phone 7.1

“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.”, say WhatsApp. “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. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.” Said Whatsapp via their official blog post.

If you’re among the one billion Whatsapp users who own any of the mentioned devices, Whatsapp leaves you with one last bit of advice, “we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”