Good news for folk with a Nokia S40, a Symbian S60 or a BlackBerry running the proprietary BB OS, including BB10. WhatsApp has today announced that it will be extending support for its service on the older mobile software platforms through June 30, 2017.
Unfortunately for those with a smartphone running any version of Android earlier than 2.3 Gingerbread, Windows Phone 7 or iOS 6, the Facebook-owned company will be sticking to its self-imposed deadline of terminating access to its messenger by the end of 2016.
So what are you supposed to do if you’d like to carry on using WhatsApp after it stops supporting your handset? Well, the firm is simply recommending that you upgrade your phone to a more recent model, though that’s certainly not a viable option for everyone.
Personally, I think WhatsApp should put some resources into developing a ‘lite’ version of its application — similar to Facebook Lite — for customers who aren’t in a financial position to purchase a new device. With over a billion users, this move is bound to affect at least a couple of million — so it wouldn’t go to waste.
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