WhatsApp users alert! App to stop after Dec 31! Is your smartphone OS on list?

Facebook-owned instant messaging platform, WhatsApp has become highly popular across the world and has over one billion downloads just on Google Play Store. Add to that the downloads on Apple's App Store and WhatsApp stands way ahead of any other messaging app. 2018 was an important year for the company as it tackled the criticism for not being able to stop the spread of fake news while bringing in new features and updates for the users. Most of these features like WhatsApp Stickers, forward label and group calls were welcomed by the users. 

In 2018, WhatsApp also made its debut on feature phones with Reliance JioPhone 2. The device introduced the platform to feature phone users and, soon Reliance Jio also extended the support for the social social messaging app on to JioPhone as well.

However, in a big setback, the good days for some users might be over soon as the company has announced a list of operating systems for which it will soon end support. The list includes all the devices running on Nokia S40. The company has made it clear that the users won’t be able to use WhatsApp on this operating system from December 31, 2018. The users also need to keep in mind that WhatsApp has stopped developing features for this platform which means that some existing features too can stop working at any time on devices running Nokia S40.

Apart from this, WhatsApp has also announced that it will end support for Android versions 2.3.7 and older as well as iPhone iOS 7 and older after February 1, 2020.

नए साल में मुनाफा हो पक्का, ऐसे दमदार कमाई वाला शेयर जानिए आज मार्केट एक्सपर्ट संदीप जैन से #2019MyPick में।@AnilSinghviZEE @dkalra81 pic.twitter.com/rnW4IHvKfm

— Zee Business (@ZeeBusiness) December 26, 2018

The company said that this decision was taken as it won't be developing features for these platforms in future. WhatsApp added that it wants to focus on mobile platforms that will used by majority users for next seven years.

"The decision was taken because we will no longer be actively developing for these platforms and some features might stop functioning at any time. When we look ahead to our next seven years, we are looking to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms that a vast majority of people use. These platforms/phones don't offer the kind of capabilities WhatsApp needs to expand its features in the future," WhatsApp said in a statement.

Last year, WhatsApp had ended support for Windows Phone 8.0, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 on December 31, 2017.