WhatsApp by February 2020 will become incompatible with some outdated versions of Android, here's what they are and what we have to do if we use them
Time 18 months and WhatsApp will no longer work on some versions of Android. The news comes directly from the official blog of the instant messaging platform, which has announced its intention to discontinue support for one of the oldest versions of the green robot operating system. So, after Android Eclair and Android Froyo, the first two versions of the operating system developed by Google, from 2020 WhatsApp will no longer work on Android Gingerbread.
The developers of the application let it be known that from February 1, 2020 WhatsApp will stop working on smartphones Android 2.3.7 and earlier versions of Gingerbread. A block due to the many new features of the messaging application owned by Facebook that will become incompatible with the operating system Gingerbread (which in 2020 will have already completed 10 years of life). At the moment about 3.9 million smartphones worldwide are using this old Google OS.
WhatsApp says goodbye to almost 4 million Android devices
The active devices with an outdated mobile operating system like Android Gingerbread are about 0.3% of all currently active smartphones of the little robot. It may seem like a very small number if we consider that up to now Android devices sold exceed 1.4 billion. But it is still a nuisance for all those who have a smartphone with this old Android version. So what should people who use a smartphone with the Gingerbread OS do? The only solution is to change, or update if possible, the phone before 2020. Otherwise, WhatsApp will be unusable from that date.
These days, meanwhile, WhatsApp has made it known that even on Apple mobile devices will soon see blocks. The instant messaging app from February 2, 2020 in fact will stop the service on iPhones with iOS 7 and then also block compatibility with iPhone iOS 9. This is about 10.7 million iPhones, about 5% of the total. Again, the only solution will be to upgrade or change the device if the update is not available.