The service will be extended until June 30, 2017. Backtracking from the initial deadline set at the end of December 2016
Owners of some old Nokia and Blackberry smartphones can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for a while. WhatsApp has just announced, in fact, that it will extend the support of its service for Nokia S40 and Symbian S60 software platforms as well as for BB's OS, including Blackberry 10.
Translated into simpler words it means that users of phones running on these operating systems will be able to use the messaging app until June 30, 2017. While this decision certainly makes a lot of people happy, it ends up irritating some. The extension, in fact, will not apply to smartphones that mount one of the previous versions of Android Gingerbread 2.3, Windows Phone 7 and iOS 6. The company acquired by Facebook intends to confirm what was communicated earlier this year: for these devices, the service will be terminated by the end of 2016.
What to do if you have a phone no longer supported by WhatsApp
So only a lucky slice of users will be able to continue to keep in touch with friends and family using WhatsApp. And for everyone else? Unfortunately, the only solution, as the same company suggests on the official website, is to switch to more updated versions of Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. Many users will then have less than a month to buy a new smartphone. "While these mobile devices have been an important part of our history," reads the post first written on Feb. 26 by the company, "they don't offer the kind of functionality we need to expand our app features in the future. The main problem with these devices is, in fact, that they have outdated technical specifications that prevent WhatsApp from being used and updated correctly.