Facebook owned messaging service WhatsApp will stop supporting BlackBerry devices, including the BlackBerry Priv that was launched less than 6 months back, Nokia devices running Symbian S60 and its S40 series, Windows Phone 7.1, as well as Android devices still running versions 2.1 & 2.2, by the end of this year. According to the company, these phones and operating systems don’t offer the kind of capabilities required to expand the feature set offered by its app. It mentions that users should switch to newer Android, iPhone or Windows Phone to continue using the messenger. Interestingly, WhatsApp claims that at the time of its launch 7 years ago, 70% of the smartphones sold were either BlackBerry or Nokia Symbian phones, which at present, account for less than 1% of sold phones. Death knell for BlackBerry OS: While phasing out the older operating systems like Symbian S60, Android 2.2 and below and Windows 7.1 makes sense, lumping BlackBerry with these, is truly sounding the death knell for BlackBerry’s OS. Note that BlackBerry still supports its OS with the latest update rolled out in January this year, while the other OS makers have long since updated or adopted different OSes from the ones phased out. However, reports from earlier this year indicate that BlackBerry itself might be looking to go Android only, as it had no new BB10 OS devices planned for 2016. As for other users, this move should not make much of a difference. WhatsApp has played safe; it will support…
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