In what could spell bad news for some cellphone users, popular messaging app WhatsApp has called for discontinuation of its services for some smartphones by the end of 2016.
In a blog dated February 26, on the occasion of its 7th anniversary, WhatsApp had announced its decision of ending support for old Symbian, Nokia and Blackberry devices, as well as older Android and iOS versions. In a recent update, however, some of these devices have been added as exceptions until June 30,2017.
Initially, these were the devices which wouldn’t support WhatsApp after December 31, 2016:
Now, WhatsApp has partially revised its decision, and will continue support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Nokia S40 and Nokia Symbian S60, but only until June 30, 2017.
WhatsApp said that Nokia and Blackberry formed 70% of smartphones in 2009, when WhatsApp started. By contrast, 99.5 per cent of sales of devices sold today work on operating systems by Google, Apple and Microsoft.
And so, to look ahead to the next seven years, they needed “to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use.”
The blog further added, “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.”
The move is sure to come as a blow to many people, especially those who use Symbian devices by choice, says Aditya Madanapalle for Firstpost. If they wish to continue using WhatsApp, they may have to shift to Android or iOS, systems which are much more complex than Symbian and also risk exposure to more bugs.