Messaging will no longer be compatible from January 1 with phones using obsolete versions of Android and iOS.
WhatsApp will no longer be compatible with 49 phone models from 1er January. Messaging will stop working on devices running a version earlier than Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean (2012), and iOS 12.1 (2018). The iPhone 5 and 5S, the Samsung Galaxy S2 and S3 mini, or the HTC Desire 500 are among the best-known models concerned.
“To keep pace with the latest technological advancements, we regularly stop supporting older operating systems and devote our resources to supporting the latest systems”specifies WhatsApp on its help page.
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The users concerned have already been alerted. “If we stop supporting your operating system, you will be notified and reminded repeatedly to upgrade your device to continue using WhatsApp”, specifies the messaging service on its website. According to an Android count from February 2021, only 0.2% of users are using a version older than 2012, or more than 400,000 Internet users.
Upgradable
On some devices, it is possible to update the smartphone’s operating system to a newer version. But some of the phones marketed before 2012 for Android and before September 2018 for iOS do not have this possibility. There is only one possibility to continue using messaging: the purchase of a new device.
WhatsApp’s last operating system update was on October 24, 2022 with support for iOS 10 and 11 discontinued.
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