WhatsApp: These devices will no longer be supported from next month

Updated on September 26, 2022 at 7:32 AM

The messaging app will no longer support certain devices operating on specific versions of iOS and Android.

WhatsApp: These devices will no longer be supported from next month

From next month, some WhatsApp users will not be able to send messages on their devices. This is because the Meta-owned app is cutting support to older versions of iOS and Android come October 2022. Affected users will have to upgrade their phones in order to continue using the popular instant messaging app, according to Tech.co.

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Affected devices

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp says it will not be supporting devices that cannot operate on iOS 12 or above. If you use an iPhone 4, 4s, 5 or 5c, you will not be able to use WhatsApp from October 24 as these devices cannot run any other operating system released by Apple apart from what they are stuck on, iOS 11. For Android users, the affected devices are those that run any Android operating system that came before OS 4.1.

A page on WhatsApp’s help centre explains:

To choose what to stop supporting, every year we, like other technology companies, look at which devices and software are the oldest and have the fewest number of people still using them. These devices also might not have the latest security updates, or might lack the functionality required to run WhatsApp.

It is unclear how many of WhatsApp’s 2.5 billion users would be affected by this development.

Alerts

It is quite common for apps to discontinue support for outdated OS models. According to Tech.co, the decision on when to stop rolling out updates for older versions of operating systems is a tough one that software producing companies have to make.

Industry watchers say owners of the affected devices are already being notified of the impending shutdown. The alerts on Apple devices read: