After multiple delays, WhatsApp is officially discontinuing support for BB10 and BBOS — as well as a host of other legacy operating systems, including Windows Phone 8.0, Nokia S40 and Android versions older than 2.3.7 — on December 31st, 2017.
While the popular chat app will continue to work on these older devices (at least for the time being), WhatsApp says BB10 and BBOS users won’t be able to create a new account or verify their existing account. In addition, WhatsApp says certain features may stop working at any time.
As in the past, the company says its discounting support for legacy BlackBerry operating systems because they don’t support the “capabilities” the company needs to build out and support new features.
WhatsApp had originally planned to stop supporting BBOS and BB10 smartphones at the end of 2016. However, outcry from BB10 and BBOS users, as well as behind the scenes efforts by BlackBerry, led the company to extend support for those operating systems on June 20th, 2017.
In separate posts, WhatsApp details how BBOS and BB10 users can transfer their chat history to a new device.
BlackBerry plans to support both BBOS and BB10 until the end of 2019. In the new year, the company, in conjunction with BlackBerry Mobile, will offer an incentive to users of those devices to upgrade to either the KEYone or Motion.
[source]WhatsApp[/source]
