From the parts of Menlo Park continue to clean up, removing support for old and no longer secure operating systems. This time it's the turn of Windows 10 mobile
Lovers of "vintage" smartphones in a while will have to say goodbye to one of the most popular apps in the world: WhatsApp. The famous instant messaging service, in fact, already from December 31 will not work on some devices.
Subsequently, in February 2020, it will be the turn of other old smartphones to say goodbye to the instant messaging app. But the first to lose support from WhatsApp will be smartphones with all versions of Windows Mobile, including Windows 10 Mobile. Users of these smartphones will wake up, on New Year's Day 2020, without being able to use this app anymore. The reason is very simple: due to technical issues, it is no longer safe to run WhatsApp on devices with Windows Mobile as their operating system. A few days later, on February 1, 2020, WhatsApp will also disappear from smartphones with older versions of iOS and Android.
Windows Mobile, goodbye to WhatsApp, that's why
The news of the end of support for Microsoft's mobile operating systems by WhatsApp comes from the German site WindowsArea.de. Although Windows 10 Mobile users will receive one last cumulative update starting December 10, in fact, the fate of this operating system is already sealed: Microsoft will not release any further security updates, will close the app store for Windows 8.1 on December 16, and has long since invited its users to switch to a newly built Android or iOS smartphone, because Microsoft's operating system will no longer be developed.
WhatsApp, therefore, has decided to cut ties with Microsoft because the Redmond-based company will soon no longer release any security patches for its own OS. So, in the future, because of Windows Mobile, WhatsApp's app could become insecure.
WhatsApp: goodbye even on old Android and iOS
For the same reason, security first and foremost, from February 2020 WhatsApp will no longer be usable on smartphones with Android 2.3.7 (dating back to December 2010) or earlier and iOS 8 (launched in September 2014) or earlier. Again, these are extremely dated operating systems that, fortunately, are now used by very few users. The risk for WhatsApp to have security issues due to outdated operating systems, therefore, is far greater than the number of users who will no longer be able to use the app.