All good things must come to an end…
WhatsApp has announced it plans to end support for a number of ailing operating systems, including BlackBerry 10.
The company behind the hugely popular messaging app cites a “greater emphasis on security” for the scrapping, which comes in the week of the WhatsApp’s seventh birthday.
In a blog post, WhatsApp confirmed discontinuing support for the following platforms:
- BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10
- Nokia S40
- Nokia Symbian S60
- Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
- Windows Phone 7.1
To justify the move, WhatsApp wrote the following:
“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future. 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.”
Related: WhatsApp tips and tricks
It continued: “When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today.”
That’s no exaggeration; around 70% of smartphones sold at the time used an operating system built by either BlackBerry or Nokia.
That’s compared to today, where the lion’s share of devices – about 99.5% – run on software developed by Google, Apple, or Microsoft.
Are you affected by this change? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
