WhatsApp to Shut Down on These Phones; Check Out

WhatsApp is the most used messaging service in the world, with more than 2 billion monthly active users. The Facebook-owned app is even more popular than the Messenger service and is used in more countries and on a wide range of devices, including very old and outdated versions of Android. Unfortunately for some of these former Android users, WhatsApp will stop supporting the messaging app on older phones starting in November.

While WhatsApp supports a wide variety of devices, the company occasionally raises the minimum version of Android, which was previously at Android 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. The company has now updated its website to say that it will only support Android 4.1 devices when November rolls around, as detected by feature leaker WABetaInfo. After this date, users of these older devices will no longer receive WhatsApp updates on their smartphones.

What if users have an older Android phone?

Chances are you've got a new smartphone that has received at least an update or two in the last few years, you don't need to worry that WhatsApp will no longer be compatible with older devices. However, if you have a very old and outdated smartphone like the LG Optimus L3, Samsung Galaxy SII, Galaxy Core, ZTE Grand S Flex and Huawei Ascend G740, you will not be able to receive updates. "WhatsApp will no longer support Android phones running OS 4.0.4 and older on November 1, 2021. Please switch to a supported device or save your chat history before then," the company says.

What WhatsApp Said:

On the official WhatsApp support page, the company has stated that it currently provides support for Android 4.1 and later versions, which means that smartphones released after 2013 should be able to use WhatsApp for the foreseeable future. However, those who have older smartphones will not be able to get updates beyond that date. WhatsApp isn't the only developer to do so - several developers are dropping support for older versions of Android as multi-version compatibility can make the app cumbersome and make optimization difficult.