WhatsApp’s official blog is a bit strange. It is very rare that new posts are published, despite the multitude of updates and new features that the app regularly sees. Then, if there are new posts, with new information about the messaging app, they don’t appear as regular articles. Instead, many WhatsApp blog posts come via new answers on the WhatsApp FAQ page.
This is how we’ve found out about a rather chilling development. Come the beginning of next year, there will be a whole host of phones that will no longer be able to use WhatsApp.
Phones running the Windows Phone operating system will stop supporting WhatsApp by the end of the year
Yep, it is an updated FAQ answer page that has brought the news of doom and gloom to all Windows Phone users. On December 31, 2019 WhatsApp will stop working on Windows Phones. According to Statista, Windows Phone’s market share (in the UK) has dropped to just above 0.5%, but, to be fair, it was never that high to begin with. It enjoyed its largest market share at the end of 2015, and even then, it topped off at only 3.65% of mobile users. Less than 1% might not sound like a lot, but when you consider that we’re talking about all smartphone users, you see that the number of people who are about to fall off a WhatsApp cliff is quite high.
The updated FAQ page relates to which versions of the most popular mobile operating systems enjoy WhatsApp support. The page also states,
“For the following operating systems, you can no longer create new accounts, nor reverify existing accounts. However, you’ll be able to continue using WhatsApp on:
- Android versions 2.3.7 and older until February 1, 2020
- iOS 7 and older until February 1, 2020”
With iOS 7 being from 2013 and Android 2.3.7 being from 2010, the biggest news from the page is the Windows Phone bombshell. Hardly anybody will be affected by the lack of support to the older Android and iOS versions, but if you are still running the older software, the page warns that some functions could stop working at any moment.
Anybody running Android 4.03 or iOS 8 or newer will be able to continue using WhatsApp unhindered.
The real bad news for Windows Phone users is that come December 31, 2019, they’ll be cut off on from WhatsApp altogether. In what could be seen as another slap in the face there is, as yet, no WhatsApp FAQ answer page telling Windows Phone users what to do after that date. In the lack of any official advice from the messaging company, all we can say is get yourself an Android smartphone that’s not yet nine years old or an iPhone from the last six years.
