WhatsApp will stop working on these phones. The application changes requirements
On October 24, WhatsApp will stop working on some phones. The popular messenger will introduce a change that will affect users of older Android phones.
The creators of the popular WhatsApp messenger have announced that they will disable support for older Android phones. The big change will take place tomorrow, although we have a relatively small chance of being among those affected by it.
WhatsApp with new requirements. Android 5 or higher
WhatsApp’s official support page states that “from October 24, 2023, only Android OS version 5.0 and above will be supported.” So far, the application could be used by people with devices up to Android 4.1.
Both versions of the mobile operating system are old, having been made public in 2014 (Android 5 Lollipop) and 2012 (Android 4.1 Jelly Bean), respectively. The older version is no longer even supported by Google, which prevents, among other things, installations of new applications from Google Play.
So if we have been changing our smartphone to a new one over the last ten years, we should feel safe. However, among traditionalists and older people, there may be cases of users who are very accustomed to the device. These should receive special notifications directly on WhatsApp.
According to Meta, the withdrawal from support for Android 4.1 is dictated by security and functionality issues. Old phones do not have new security updates, which makes them vulnerable to hacker attacks. Older devices may also lack functions that will be necessary to operate the app.
October news on WhatsApp
As we wrote in Wprost.pl, Meta is constantly improving its flagship messenger. The application, which has billions of users, gained many new features in October, gradually added to the pre-release version of the application.
One of the elements is the addition of a search option in the Updates tab, which is intended to facilitate navigation in the relatively new part of the application. Engineers also added the function of pinning messages in channels, reworked the attachment sending menu, added new formatting tools to the app and made it easier to copy links from messages.
