WhatsApp caused a big stir last year when it announced that it was planning to drop support for a bunch of older BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Phone, iOS, and Android software versions. The initial cut-off date was initially set for the end of 2016, but this later got delayed to 30 June 2017.
That date is fast approaching, and it seems WhatsApp has had yet another change of heart. It’s updated the original blog post announcing the news with a fresh list of dates. The Nokia Symbian S60 is still set to exit on June 30, but the Nokia S40 has gotten an extension till 31 December 2018.
BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 have received a lifeline till 31 December 2017, as has Windows Phone 8.0 and older variants. Surprisingly, Android versions 2.3.7 and older will stick around till 1 February 2020. Having roughly 3 years in hand should be more than enough time to upgrade to a newer version of Google’s OS.
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It should be noted that WhatsApp in its first announcement had stated that it would be killing support for Android 2.1 and 2.2, but there’s no mention of the two in the new list. There may or may not be any extension planned for those particular platforms based on the omission.
WhatsApp isn’t actively developing for these software versions, so features could stop working at any moment. It’s best to upgrade to newer OS variants, especially considering how vulnerable older software can be to security breaches. There currently isn’t any option to transfer chat history between platforms, so users will have to send it as an attachment via email.