The instant messaging platform, WhatsApp has said it will stop supporting 47 smartphone brands including Apple, Samsung among others from December 31, 2022. While these phone brands have not been phased out and are still very much in the market, the Whatsapp upgrade will, however, affect them as their operating systems will not be compatible with WhatsApp’s new features. ‘To keep up with the latest advances in tech, we routinely stop supporting older operating systems to point our resources to supporting the latest ones. These devices also might not have the latest security updates, or might lack the functionality required to run WhatsApp.’ the messaging service said.
This simply means that after the stated date, users who own the affected phones will stop receiving WhatsApp security updates and new features. Eventually, the service will stop working for them. According to the DailyMail, users of the affected phones will be sent an alert by WhatsApp before it stops working. In this recent announcement, 47 phone models across different phone brands have been affected and they are Apple iPhone 5, Apple iPhone 5c, Archos 53 Platinum, Grand S Flex ZTE
Grand X Quad V987 ZTE, HTC Desire 500, Huawei Ascend D, Huawei Ascend D1, Huawei Ascend D2, Huawei Ascend G740 and Huawei Ascend Mate. Others are Huawei Ascend P, Quad XL, Lenovo A820, LG Enact, LG Lucid 2, LG Optimus 4X HD, LG Optimus F3, LG Optimus F3Q, LG Optimus F5, LG Optimus F6, LG Optimus F7, LG Optimus L2 II, LG Optimus L3 II, LG Optimus L3 II Dual, LG Optimus L4 II, LG Optimus L4 II Dual, LG Optimus L5, LG Optimus L5 Dual, LG Optimus L5 II, LG Optimus L7, LG Optimus L7 II. Also affected are LG Optimus L7 II Dual, LG Optimus Nitro HD, Memo ZTE V956, Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, Samsung Galaxy Core, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy S3 mini, Samsung Galaxy Trend II, Samsung Galaxy Trend Lite, Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2, Sony Xperia Arc S, Sony Xperia miro, Sony Xperia Neo L, Wiko Cink Five, Wiko Darknight ZT.
