WhatsApp to End Support for iOS 10 and iOS 11, Require iPhone 5S or Later to Work

Monday May 23, 2022 1:14 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

WhatsApp is set to end support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 versions of Apple's mobile operating system, requiring all users to be running at least iOS 12 after October 24, 2022.

That means iOS 10 and iOS 11 users – who will mainly be iPhone 5 and ‌iPhone‌ 5C owners – will no longer be able to use the encrypted chat service after the specified date.

WhatsApp already states on its Help Center that it currently provides official support iOS 12 or newer, so presumably ‌iPhone‌ models like the ‌iPhone‌ 5s, ‌iPhone‌ 6, and ‌iPhone‌ 6s will remain fully supported for the foreseeable future.

Users who intend to upgrade their ‌iPhone‌ and use the app after the above date can back up their WhatsApp chats to iCloud, and restore their chat history to a newer, supported device. You can find instructions on how to do so here.

(Via WaBetaInfo.)

Tag: WhatsApp

Top Rated Comments

Unggoy Murderer

18 months ago

I wonder what happen the these who said they will continue to use iOS 6 and not move to non Skeuomorphic designs of past iOS 7??

I'm pretty sure most of these people are just making up fake stories for internet points.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TheRoadRunner

The 5 and 5C have been around for a very long time in tech terms (2012/2013), so in my opinion you can’t complain about this. They’ve done well to be supported for this long.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

While I agree, it makes little sense to drop support.

I mean I can understand not porting new features and that would be legit, but keeping at least the text part wouldmake sense.

It's not quite that straightforward. When the app starts having different features gated to different devices, you increase its complexity quite a lot, plus encourage the dragging of bloat. It can also lead to security issues (through legacy, unsupported API use) and generally just bring the experience down for everyone.

Nearly ten years is a good run for software support.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)