WhatsApp has pulled the plug on support for smartphones running older versions of Android, iOS and Windows Phone operating systems. WhatsApp has announced its plan to stop supporting older versions of these mobile OSes in order to divert the resources to newer versions.
WhatsApp will not work on smartphones running Android 2.2 or lower, iOS 6.0 or lower and Windows Phone 7. While WhatsApp is withdrawing support, the effect won't be as averse since these OSes have very limited market share. According to Google's Dashboard, most Android phones are either running KitKat or later. In the world of Apple, only less than 8 percent of devices are running iOS version older than iOS 9.
WhatsApp is also withdrawing support for Windows Phone 7 and considering very limited activity in that space, it is easier to assume that existing device would be already running Windows Phone 8.1 or later. WhatsApp has also announced plans to stop supporting devices based on Nokia's Symbian or BlackBerry OS platforms on June 30, 2017. WhatsApp says these ecosystems "don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future."
WhatsApp continues to grow as the most used messaging platform on mobile. The service is being used by over 1 billion users and now offers support for video calling, document sharing among many other features.