If you are still using old smartphones, we admire your dedication but sadly, not everyone appreciate your virtue and WhatsApp being one of them. Late February, the messaging app company announced that it will stop supporting some mobile devices by end of the 2016. And by ‘not supporting’ it means, folks with the shortlisted devices will not be able to use Whatsapp anymore. If you rely on WhatsApp as your primarily messaging app and own a BlackBerry, Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 7.1, or any mobile that can’t go beyond Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, then WhatsApp suggests you pick up a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone.
WhatsApp explains that the move is necessary for the company to expand its app’s features in the future which old smartphones won’t be able to support. Clearly, if people fuss about the 99 cents they had to pay previously for using WhatsApp, then they certainly would do the same when ‘force’ to upgrade to a 99 dollar device and as you may imagine, this is not going to go down well with many users. Then again, it would have already projected how many devices are there before making this move. It’s not charging anything anyways, so it would be no loss to them, I guess?
On the other hand, kids who are using pass-me-down phones which happen to be one of the aforementioned models can finally say “ma, I can’t message you no more cos’ WhatsApp say so, or at least not until you let me buy a newer smartphone.”
We imagine many users will be doing the above, but with a phone instead of a guitar.
Image via CrackBerry
