WhatsApp Will Not Run On These Smartphones From 1 Jan 2020

WhatsApp is also introducing a slew of features for its mobile application users.

WhatsApp is ending support for devices running on old OS versions. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Starting next year, WhatsApp will stop working on millions of older mobile devices globally as the company has withdrawn support for such phones.

The users on Windows Phones will be locked out forever after December 31, said Facebook.

"WhatsApp will stop working on millions of phones in the next couple of months as the company withdraws support for some older mobile platforms.

“From February 1, 2020, any iPhone running iOS 8 or older will no longer be supported, along with any Android device running version 2.3.7 or older,” Facebook said.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp's updated FAQs said that users whose devices have those operating systems "can no longer create new accounts, nor reverify existing accounts" after that date.

Users of these operating systems are already unable to create new WhatsApp accounts or re-verify existing accounts.

This change is expected to have even less of an effect on users since only about 0.24 percent of mobile phones around the world, according to Statcounter, use a Windows operating system.

"Furthermore, WhatsApp is withdrawing support for all Windows phones from December 31, 2019 -- the same month that Microsoft ends support of its Windows 10 Mobile OS," the social networking platform added.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 and aims to integrate the messaging platform into its other services Messenger and Instagram.