Beginning January 1, 2025, WhatsApp will not be supported on older Android telephones working Android KitKat or earlier. This alteration implies that when you’re nonetheless utilizing an older gadget as your major cellphone, you’ll have to improve to a more recent mannequin to proceed utilizing WhatsApp.
Meta, the corporate behind WhatsApp, is discontinuing help for these older units as a result of they lack the {hardware} capabilities to help the app’s evolving options and functionalities. As WhatsApp continues so as to add new options, comparable to AI functionalities, it wants extra highly effective {hardware} to make sure a clean consumer expertise.
Among the standard cellphone fashions that will probably be affected by this modification embrace the beneath:
- Samsung Galaxy S3
- Samsung Galaxy Be aware 2
- Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
- Motorola Moto G (1st Gen)
- Motorola Razr HD
- Moto E 2014
- HTC One X
- HTC One X+
- HTCDesire 500
- HTCDesire 601
- LG Optimus G
- LG Nexus 4
- LG G2 Mini
- LG L90
- Sony Xperia Z
- Sony Xperia SP
- Sony Xperia T
- Sony Xperia V
If you happen to’re at present utilizing certainly one of these older units, it’s necessary to again up your WhatsApp information to a more recent gadget earlier than the deadline. In any other case, you’ll lose all of your media and chat historical past from WhatsApp.
This isn’t the primary time Meta has introduced plans to finish help for older units. A number of months in the past, the corporate introduced that it might cease supporting iPhones working on iOS older than model 15.1.
For iPhone customers, nevertheless, the deadline to improve to a more recent gadget is Might 2025. This provides iPhone customers a bit extra time to organize for the change in comparison with Android customers. Nonetheless, it’s nonetheless necessary to pay attention to the deadline and to begin planning for an improve when you’re nonetheless utilizing an older iPhone.
The choice to finish help for older units is prone to have an effect on a major variety of customers, notably in growing nations the place older telephones are nonetheless frequent. Nonetheless, as these tech corporations proceed innovating and diving deeper into AI, I’m afraid it can turn out to be a necessity to replace much more typically than up to now — no less than if having the newest model of an app is a precedence. It’s a reminder that know-how is now transferring in a short time, and we might want to make some selections with a purpose to keep away from shedding entry to our favourite apps and providers.
