From November 1, 2021 WhatsApp stops working on millions of phones in the world: here are which ones and when you can remedy with a simple update
November 1 is the day of goodbye to WhatsApp for millions of smartphones in the world: it can no longer be used and, in almost all cases, there will be no way to remedy this situation. Unlike what you may believe, in fact, WhatsApp "doesn't last forever" and smartphones, from one day to the next, can become incompatible with the most used chat app in the world.
That's exactly what happens on November 1, 2021 to all smartphones, none excluded, that still have the old Android 4.0.4 operating system, released by Google back in March 2012 and currently in use on 2-3 million smartphones in the world, including Italy. On these smartphones there is nothing more to do: WhatsApp no longer works as of November because, simply, the app no longer supports that operating system and now requires at least Android 4.1. This, indirectly, means that if the phone can be updated to at least Android 4.1, then you can continue to use WhatsApp.
Who will have to say goodbye to WhatsApp
You will say: who still has a phone with an operating system from 2012? In theory no one, but in practice it is not so. The most frequent case is that of the old "spare" phone, left in a drawer for years and pulled out only because the new phone broke.
While waiting for the repair, or the arrival of another smartphone to replace the broken one, you use the old one and you find it with the old version of Android present at the time that phone was placed in the drawer.
At this point there are two hypotheses: that phone has Android 4.0.4 but can be updated to a newer version (because the manufacturer has released it in the meantime) or it cannot be updated. In the latter case, goodbye WhatsApp.
Why WhatsApp doesn't support phones anymore
The problem is always the same and has two faces: the economic one and the cybersecurity one. Releasing continuous updates for phones costs manufacturers a lot of money, as not all brands are punctual in releasing monthly updates (like Google does with its Pixel phones).
For WhatsApp, similarly, it's a huge cost to develop an app that is compatible with all the old combinations of phones and versions of Android that exist in the world. So, simply, every year, some versions are no longer supported.
There's then a flipside, positive, on security: WhatsApp is one of the possible malware infection vehicles for a smartphone, and using it on phones with an insecure operating system (because an outdated operating system is not secure at all) is dangerous. Again, therefore, best to leave out old phones with old versions of operating systems, lest they become a very dangerous vehicle of infection for others as well.