We are set to enter New Year and a lot of things are going to change including the tech we use. New smartphones and features will be introduced while older will trashed. Or, let's put it it this way, you will be forced to get rid of them. Life will change for many smartphone users starting January 1, 2020 when WhatsApp will stop working on some older smartphones, leaving those users without their communications lifeline. The instant messaging platform has confirmed that a number of smartphones will lose support for the popular messaging application as WhatsApp developers will be pulling support for certain operating systems that they deem outdated.

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WhatsApp has conducted such exercise in the past as well where it has ended support for older operating systems, both Android, iOS, Nokia, others. Usually, this is done at the beginning of New Year. This year the app will stop working on several smartphones that run the older versions of Android, iOS and Windows Phone OS.

The Nokia Lumia smartphones are expected to be hit the hardest. They are the last ones still using Microsoft-made Windows operating system. WhatsApp is also set to end support for Android phones running on Android 2.3.7 won't be able to run the application starting February 2020. That means no more updates and no more sending or receiving messages through the app.

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Apple iPhone users are also set to suffer a big setback with WhatsApp ending support for iPhones running iOS 8 and older versions in February. It had already stopped users of these devices from making new accounts on the platform. "From February 1, 2020, any iPhone running iOS 8 or older will no longer be supported, along with any Android device running version 2.3.7 or older," Facebook said in a blog post, earlier this month. It added that users of these operating systems are already unable to create new WhatsApp accounts or re-verify existing accounts.

Earlier, WhatsApp had ended support for devices running older operating systems such as the Nokia Symbian S60, Nokia Series 40 operating systems, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10, Android 2.1 and 2.2, Windows Phone 7, and iPhone 3GS and iOS 6.

Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014 and aims to integrate the messaging platform into its other services Messenger and Instagram.