Facebook, the company that owns applications such as WhatsApp, has announced that its popular messaging app will no longer support older iPhones. This is common in all types of apps, although it attracts more attention when it happens in applications so well known and used by millions of people like this one. We will tell you all the details below.
The iPhone 4s are the main losers
The iPhone 4s were software obsolete almost 5 years ago and although not so long ago they received iOS 9.3.6 with security patches, the truth is that they will never receive a version that is equal to or later than iOS 10. Each iPhone has a latest version of iOS at some point and for performance reasons they are no longer supported.
According to the report published on the WhatsApp website, the app will no longer be available on devices that do not have iOS 10 at least. Obviously with versions such as iOS 11, iOS 12, iOS 13 or the current ones of iOS 14 it will continue to be fully functional. Therefore, the list of Apple devices that will no longer receive WhatsApp support are the following, taking into account those that had previously been obsolete in this regard:
- iPhone (original)
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- Iphone 4
- Iphone 4s
The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c will continue, at least for now, to receive support from the popular messaging app. These devices can update to iOS 10.3.4, so they will not have any problem. If you are the owner of one of them and you are on iOS 9, you must update to that version so as not to be left behind.
It should be noted that support is also discontinued for a multitude of Android devices that are also old and whose software versions are not higher than Android 4.0.3. There is even talk of less widespread devices such as those with operating systems lower than KaiOS 2.5.1 and JioPhone and JioPhone 2.
Is it really a major problem?
It must be said that this does not seem to be a disadvantage for a large number of users. Most iPhone owners have more recent models than the 4s and therefore they will be able to continue using WhatsApp and many other applications, especially if they continue to update their software today. While it is understandable that those who carry those old phones may feel annoyed, it must be understood that they are phones released 10 years ago and more, so their life cycle is quite good.
A good handful of users who still carry an iPhone 4s do so because they have a secondary phone, be it for work or purely personal or leisure reasons. In those cases, it could also affect them if they also carried it with a secondary SIM that allowed them to have WhatsApp. What is recommended for them is that they make a backup copy of the chats in iCloud that can later be transferred to the WhatsApp app of an iPhone that has more recent versions of iOS.
