Millions of old smartphone users around the world need a brace for the inevitable: WhatsApp could stop working on your phones from January 1, 2021 because the messaging platform will not co-exist compatible on several devices.
Read more: Alert: WhatsApp to end support on old iPhones, Android smartphones
WhatsApp has announced that it is withdrawing support for some older devices that are currently compatible with the application. While some users with older devices will be able to continue using WhatsApp by updating its software, others will not be so lucky.
Disabling support for older phones is not something new for WhatsApp. This time around, the messaging platform drops support for any iPhone running on software older than iOS9.
This means that the iPhone 4 and other models will not be able to access WhatsApp from January 1, 2021. iPhone 4S, 5, 5S, 5C, 6 and 6S can be upgraded to iOS9, so they will be able to support WhatsApp once it is updated.
There is bad news for Android users as well. WhatsApp will no longer work on devices running Android 4.0.3 or older versions of the operating system.
What can consumers do?
What operating system is your phone using?
First and foremost, you should find out what operating system your phone is using.
To find out what operating system your phone is running on, iPhone users can go to Settings> General> Info, where you can find information about the software version on your iPhone.
Alternatively, Android users can go to Settings> About Phone to see what version of Android their smartphone is running.
One of the main problems that users will have when their WhatsApp is no longer accessible is that their chairs are not accessible. Therefore, it is important for people with such phones mentioned above to support their chairs by January 1, 2021 if they want to keep them.
They can do this by going to the ‘Chat backup’ option under the Chats section in Settings. In addition to backing up their chairs, users of older devices should also start looking for smartphones that are similar to WhatsApp if they want to use the messaging app in the future. .