WhatsApp to Pull Support for Older iPhones From Next Year

Dec 28, 2017 3:20 am PST by Tim Hardwick
WhatsApp announced on Thursday that its mobile app will stop working on some older smartphones from next year, as it concentrates on developing new features for the popular messaging platform.

The decision means that from January 1, 2018, WhatsApp will pull support for the app on iPhone 3GS and older models, as well as iPhones running iOS 6 and earlier. The list of unsupported phones also includes Android 2.1 and 2.2, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Phone 7.

Explaining its reason for the move, WhatsApp said that when it was founded back in 2009, the mobile landscape was very different.

"About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia," the company said. "Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft - which account for 99.5 percent of sales today - were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time."

Apple's iPhone 3GS was released in June 2009, while iOS 6 was released on September 19, 2012, followed by iOS 7 in 2013. According to Apteligent Research, less than 0.04 percent of iPhone users are currently using iOS 6. Apple's most recent mobile OS, iOS 11, was released on September 19, 2017, and accounts for over 75 percent of active iOS users.

(Via Sky News.)

Tag: WhatsApp
[ 32 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

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Kabeyun
28 months ago
I’m sure both people still using a 3GS will be very disappointed.
Rating: 22 Votes
boccabella
28 months ago
Translation: Our ad platform is not compatible with these operating systems.
Rating: 5 Votes
akbarali.ch
28 months ago
Support. Is someone holding something on their shoulder so that these phones run whatsapp. They use the same communication channel what other phones use. Why discriminate and stop them functioning. I mean sms is still working on today's phones and the earliest phones as well. They may not support new flashy function but let it work as upto whatever was working. iMessage is still working on 3gs.
Rating: 4 Votes
Aussi3
28 months ago
Can’t last forever gotta move on sometime :)
Rating: 4 Votes
justperry
28 months ago

I wonder who has the other one.


Santa claus







Darn, he upgraded to an iPhone 4 just recently.
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Rating: 4 Votes
JosephAW
28 months ago
Reminds me when MS pulled support for Skype for Power PC at the time I was communicating with my friends in Europe who could not afford a newer Apple computer.
MS eventually won because my friends could afford a low cost Windows pc and abandoned the Mac.
Rating: 3 Votes
MacWanker
28 months ago
Still works on my Blackbery 9700 which is my workhorse for emails.


This was supposed to happen jan 1st 2017 I think.. that was then extended until June 2017, now this new date has been showing in the app for a while.

Will see if it happens this time. Shame if it does.


Edit - bugger, it also lists blackberry 10 as well as BBOS, so I can't even switch to my classic for it.
Rating: 3 Votes
scrapesleon
28 months ago
People need to upgrade with the time or you simply just get left behind
Rating: 2 Votes
fairuz
28 months ago
I'm surprised they were supporting iOS 6 all this time. Bravo. I'm still using an unsupported and very early version of FB Messenger that has less clutter than the current one, and it still works fine except for the lack of certain nonessential features.
Rating: 2 Votes
Xenomorph
28 months ago

Isn't iOS 8 minimum required for apps, or is that only for new code?


I know apps for iOS 6 still get updates (Telegram was already mentioned in this thread). I don't see why they wouldn't allow new apps to work on iOS 6.
Rating: 2 Votes

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