The World's most popular and widely used social messaging app is going to halt its services for Blackberry,Symbian & Windows 7.1 technology uses. The reason behind this decision that was stated by the company was that these above stated OS don't have that much capabilities that can afford the new updates which the company is expected to upgrade till March, 2016. So this is basically the main reason for discontinuing the services for these platforms.
WhatsApp further added that the above mentioned mobile OS don't offer the kind of capabilities the company needs to expand their app's features in the future and recommended users to upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.
Back in 2009, when WhatsApp was launched consumers had a very different way of using mobile than what they have today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70% of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft - which account for 99.5% of sales today - were on less than 25% of mobile devices sold at the time.
"This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family and loved ones using WhatsApp," the company added.
WhatsApp reflected on happier times for BlackBerry, saying that BlackBerry and Nokia had once commanded 70 percent of mobile devices when the messaging app launched in 2007. This figure has now shrunk to less than one percent, and WhatsApp noted that Apple, Google and Microsoft now account for 99.5 percent of smartphones sold globally, justifying the decision.
WhatsApp suggested "upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone or Windows Phone" to continue using the service.
The news may be disappointing for BlackBerry, but the firm will not be overly concerned as it is slowly moving away from BB10 OS in favour of Android for newer phones, although it will still provide platform updates.
“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” WhatsApp said on its website.
If you are using devices based on these operating systems, you can’t really do much than upgrade to the latest Android, iOS or the new Windows Mobile 10 operating systems.
While BlackBerry users can use the BBM, considering that it is a cross platform messaging platform right. But it is highly unlikely that all of your friends might be using the BlackBerry Messenger. Symbian users can either use apps such as Nimbuzz, which is available for almost all platforms. But these alternatives are unlikely to ensure WhatsApp-like instant messaging or have all contacts with same instant messaging application.
WhatsApp wrote that the market right now comprises of 99% Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 and above devices. They said that the decision was “not an easy one to make” and that the market has evolved. While other platforms will suffer, there is some respite for BB10 users as their devices are capable of running Android apps within the OS. They will, of course, lose out on Hub integration, but if they really want WhatsApp, that might be the only way.
“While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future.”, say WhatsApp. Finally, they add that, “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.”
WhatsApp to discontinue support for Blackberry, Symbian and Windows 7.1
Reviewed by Prakhar Srivastava
on
06:25:00
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Reviewed by Prakhar Srivastava
on
06:25:00
Rating:
