WhatsApp ends support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8
WhatsApp has stopped supporting a range of older smartphone operating systems, including BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, and Windows Phone 8.
WhatsApp said in a support note: "These platforms don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer OS version, or to a newer Android running OS 4.0+, iPhone running iOS 7+, or Windows Phone 8.1+ so that you can continue using WhatsApp."
Once the dominant smartphone brand, BlackBerry was overtaken by Apple's iPhone and Android devices, and today the brand is licensed to TCL, which makes Android devices under that name. And Microsoft, which once had big hopes for its smartphone business, has now largely exited that market.
WhatsApp said that while there is no way to transfer your chat history between platforms, it is possible to have your chat history attached to an email.
The news should hardly come as a shock -- WhatsApp notified users of its plan back in February 2016. It has already dropped support for some antique operating systems, such as Android versions older than 2.3.3, Windows Phone 7, iOS 6, and Nokia Symbian S60.
Photos: BlackBerrys through the ages
It's still possible to use phones running some older OSes: if your device is running Nokia's S40 operating system, you still have until December 31 this year. And you can still WhatsApp your pals using an Android Gingerbread device (Android 2.3.7) and older until February 1, 2020, at which point that version of Android will be almost a decade old.
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