Got an older phone model? You may not be able to access WhatsApp soon

Muscat: Residents in Oman who access WhatsApp on older phones will need to buy newer models to continue using the messaging service from next year.

The company has announced that certain older models of phones will not receive support for the app anymore, and users who attempt to continue to use WhatsApp on older phones could lose access to important updates and security features in future.

The messaging app will drop support for 'BlackBerry OS', 'BlackBerry 10', 'Windows Phone 8.0' and older platforms from December 31, the company has confirmed.

"From the beginning of next year, a number of devices will drop support Whats app messaging application, these devices which have the operating system of ‘BlackBerry OS’, ‘BlackBerry 10’, Android system less than third version and devices running Windows and Windows 8.0 and older platforms," Abdullah Al Baharani, General Manager of Muscat Data Technology company said.

“We will no longer actively develop for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time,” WhatsApp said.

“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,” the company added.

WhatsApp said that it will not work on ‘Nokia S40’ after December 2018. Also, the app will stop functioning correctly on Android OS version 2.3.7 and older, after February 1, 2020.