Why WhatsApp will stop working on millions of phones next month
Popular mobile messaging platform WhatsApp will stop working for millions of people next month.
On February 1, WhatsApp will withdraw support for devices running off outdated software.
This means iPhones running iOS 8 or older and Android phones using 2.3.7 or older will no longer be supported.
This comes after WhatsApp made the app inaccessible to all Windows devices.
“WhatsApp will stop working on millions of phones in the next couple of months as the company withdraws support for some older mobile platforms,” WhatsApp’s owner Facebook said at the end of last year.
“Users of these operating systems are already unable to create new WhatsApp accounts or re-verify existing accounts.”
WhatsApp stopped supporting all Windows phones from December 31, 2019, after Microsoft ended support of its Windows 10 Mobile OS.
In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, which is part of the ‘Facebook family of apps’, alongside Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, the latter bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion.
In 2019, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s intention to integrate its messaging apps more closely to “make it easier to reach friends and family across networks”.
Facebook also announced a move towards end-to-end encryption across its services.
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