Congratulations & best wishes to Whatsapp, as it turned seven years old earlier this week.
What is the new?
Whatsapp is planning to discontinue compatibility with older smartphones and has made up mind on paying more attention to largely used mobile platforms. They are trying to put more emphasis on security features and to make your experience better with the people you care about.
Post on WhatsApp Blog says, They don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future.
List of mobile platforms that WhatsApp won't support by the end of 2016:
- BlackBerry OS & BlackBerry 10
- Nokia S40
- Nokia Symbian S60
- Android 2.1 & 2.2
- Windows Phone 7
- iPhone 3GS/iOS 6
Why they are doing this?
They have shared a wonderful example to explain this: When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people's use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. 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.
Most Important: How it will impact you?
Well, it won't impact largely. To a great extend people are updated & user dynamics have changed over the last couple of years. It doesn't look like too many phones will be affected, who are using Android & iOS.
According to Google's own dashboard from Nov 2016, It says only 0.1% devices running on Android Froyo.
Anyone who still has a phone with Ice-cream sandwich or Jelly Bean need not panic.
According to Apple's Oct 2016 data, there are around 8% devices still on earlier versions of iOS (which includes everything under iOS 9 and below). So if you are still on iOS 6 for some reason, then you should know that support ends for you by the end of this year.For Windows 7 mobile users, 2016 will definitely be the end of WhatsApp Era.
Whatsapp has extended the lifeline support for BB10, Nokia S40, Symbian S60, and BBOS until June 2017.
WhatsApp is also getting some Snapchat like features, which includes a version of Story. Surely, you need to upgrade if you want to explore new upcoming features within WhatsApp.
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