Updated List Of Phones That Won’t Work With WhatsApp Released

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A new list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp was released by the company today, giving owners of older devices some disappointing news.

WhatsApp

While the adoption is very low in the United States, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging services worldwide with a user base of more than 1.5 billion across multiple continents. In areas where SMS is not as popular, the Facebook-owned messaging app provides a viable way to stay connected with friends and the features are quickly expanding – making it one of the top messaging options overall.

One of the premier perks of WhatsApp was its availability across a wide number of platforms, but a new list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp may make the service more limited to phones that are at least somewhat modern. For the majority of us, it won’t be an issue, but for those who are hanging on to older devices for one reason or another, they may soon find themselves without access to one of their favorite applications.

List Of Phones That Won’t Work With WhatsApp

With WhatsApp users sending 60 billion messages a day, it’s clear that there is a demand for the service across a wide range of devices. Most people are using the service on a recent phone, but there are still a sizeable number of people that will lose support for their device with an upcoming update. The phones that won’t work with WhatsApp are still okay for now, but the support will be pulled over the next couple of years.

The list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp wasn’t broadcasted publicly, rather being sneakily added into an update to an old blog post titled “support for older operating systems.” According to the post, the company will nix support for the phones that won’t work with WhatsApp as of February 1, 2020.

While some were disappointed that WhatsApp didn’t make the changes to their support more apparent, it’s almost two years away before support drops so there’s currently no need to panic. With such a long time before the app is finally dropped, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the majority of people to upgrade to a supported device within the coming months. This advance notice will be helpful as it allows people to start saving for a more modern device.

The phones that won’t work with WhatsApp are devices running iOS 7 or earlier or any operating system including and before Android Gingerbread 2.3.7. Users of phones on these devices have already been blocked from making new WhatsApp accounts, but users with existing accounts can continue using the service on their phone until that February 2020 deadline.

The full list of operating systems that are no longer supported by WhatsApp is included below.

  • Android versions older than 2.3.3
  • Windows Phone 8.0 and older
  • iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
  • Nokia Symbian S60
  • BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10

If you’re currently using a device with those operating system, WhatsApp recommends upgrading your phone to a more modern device with at least the following requirements:

  • Android running OS 4.0+
  • iPhone running iOS 8+
  • Windows Phone 8.1+

“Once you have one of these devices, simply install WhatsApp and verify your phone number on the new device. Keep in mind that WhatsApp can only be activated with one phone number on one device at a time,” writes WhatsApp.

“There’s currently no option to transfer your chat history between platforms. However, we provide the option to send your chat history attached to an email.”

The list of phones that won’t work with WhatsApp is mainly centered on some very old technology, so it may just be the push to get people to upgrade to a more recent operating system. With the cutoff date almost two years away, we certainly have plenty of time to make sure we can continue using our favorite messaging app.

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