WhatsApp Will No Longer Work On Blackberry, Nokia, Others By End Of 2016

The Facebook-owned company announced via a blog post that it will be dropping support for BlackBerry OS, including the newest BB10 release, however it won’t affect the blackberry Priv Smartphone, which runs Google’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow software.

The tech giant, will also end support for Nokia’s Symbian S40 and S60 operating systems, Android versions 2.1 and 2.2 and Windows Phone 7.1. These operating systems “don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future”, WhatsApp wrote.

“This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.

WhatsApp, who recently celebrated reaching the one billion mark, added that BlackBerry and Nokia, which commanded about 70 percent of mobile devices when the messaging app was first launched in 2007, has now shrunk to less than one percent, noting that Apple, Google and Microsoft now account for 99.5 percent of smartphones sold globally.

The company however, advised affected users to change their mobile devices before the end of the year.

“If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”