The Facebook-owned instant messaging application, WhatsApp Messenger will cease to support some mobile operating systems from 2017. The main being BlackBerry 10 OS for all BlackBerry OS. It also includes Nokia’s Symbian S40, Symbion S60 versions and Android 2.1, 2.2 Froyo and Windows Phone 7.1 OS.
The WhatsApp blog announces the decision of the company ceasing to support these mobile operating system by this year ending. The company added that the market was very dissimilar at the time of launching WhatsApp in 2009. The market share of Android and iOS was only 25 percent whereas BlackBerry and Nokia controlled nearly 70 percent of the market. Ending the support is an unwelcoming reminder on the change of lucks of two companies.
Describing the problem with the present operating systems, WhatApp added that these mobile devices were unable to deliver matching capabilities to complement the expanding features of the app though they had played significant roles in the making the app popular.
It was really a tough decision for them to announce, but had to be true to people who use WhatsApp messenger service to connect friends, family and near and dear ones. The blog post further added that consumers using these mobile services need to upgrade to modern Android, iPhone or Windows phone before the end of the current year to continue to use WhatsApp.
The news is not a surprise to BlackBerry users because the company has already indicated its appreciation for BlackBerry Priv’s performance and suggested at a medium range Android phone in the same time. Chen reassured users of BlackBerry 10 in January and continued to announce that it had plans for version 10.3.4 with more security developments for release in this year.