Facebook’s all set to cut off life support for devices running ancient versions of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Messaging on both the main app and Messenger will cease functioning on affected phones by the end of March.
In a blog post, Facebook’s defending its decision by stating that older iterations of its app can’t support rich features like voice and video calling, bots, and games properly. It’s asking people hanging on to older devices to upgrade, reaching out to them via email or within Messenger.
Facebook will be axing messaging support for version 55 and below of its Android app and version 26 and below of its iPad app. Any variants of its iOS app which were released on or before 10 October 2011 are also losing compatibility. As for Messenger, version 10 for Android and version 8 for iOS are also no longer going to allow texting.
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Things get even worse for owners of Microsoft devices. Patrons of Facebook for Windows Phone, Messenger for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1, and Facebook for Windows 8 and 8.1 desktop app can’t send missives from their products after the end of March.
Facebook is asking people who are affected by this sea change to make a choice between updating to the newest version of its app, updating their OS entirely, or shifting gears to Facebook Lite. If none of these sound appealing, they can always access the site through their handset’s browser.
You can download the latest version of Facebook via the App Store, Play Store, or Windows Store and Messenger here, here, and here, correspondingly.