WhatsApp: Stop supporting BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone 7.1 and other older OS
By the end of 2016, WhatsApp will end support for older mobile platforms, and less used. Among these is the presence of the BlackBerry OS, even in the latest version.
WhatsApp has announced the end of support for older Mobile platforms no longer in use. There is also a surprise: BlackBerry OS, including the BlackBerry OS 10 version, not so old as to be totally unused. Then there is Nokia S40 and Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and 2.2 and Windows Phone 7.1. The news comes only a short distance from the celebration of the seventh year since the creation of the service, and the achievement of the first billion monthly active users.
” When we launched WhatsApp in 2009, the use of the mobile devices was very different than today, ” reads the official blog of the company. ” App Store was born a few months, 70% of smartphones sold was a Nokia or BlackBerry operating system.
The operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – who now occupy 99.5% of the market – were installed in less than 25% of devices sold at the time. In order to look over the next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms that most people will use. ”
Although the news will be greeted with not too much joy in some of the emerging countries in which Nokia devices are still used and have a part of the market share, the maneuver of WhatsApp makes sense if we consider potential future plans of the company.
To launch WhatsApp offered a simple platform for the exchange of messages over the Internet. In recent years the service has expanded with voice calls, and in the future we talk of a possible introduction of video calls. Still relying on old operating systems obsolete and would not be a wise move considering the evolution of the service.
” Although these Mobile devices have been an important part of our history, today do not offer the possibility of expansion, we need to expand the features of our application in the future “, explains the company. ” It was a tough decision to make, but we believe it is the right one in order to deliver to the best mode users to keep in touch with friends, family and loved ones using WhatsApp “.
For those who use the mobile devices potentially involved in the changes now recommend ” upgrading to a new version of Android, iPhone or Windows Phone ” before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.
