Starting November 1st, WhatsApp will no longer support Android devices running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or earlier, and iPhones running iOS 9 or earlier. If you use a device with OS versions or older, this change will affect you.
“As of November 1, 2021, WhatsApp will no longer support Android phones running OS 4.0.4 and earlier,” the Facebook-owned messaging company reports. “WhatsApp for iPhone requires iOS 10 or later. For the best experience, we recommend that you use the latest version of iOS available for your phone.”
What to Do if You Are Affected
The first thing that you should do if you are affected by this change is back up your WhatsApp messages. Other than that, you can update your Android device or iPhone to the supported versions.
For Android users, WhatsApp now supports Android 4.1 (launched in 2012) or newer. To put that in perspective, if you own a Samsung Galaxy S2, you should be able to upgrade to Android 4.1.2 quite easily, but all the other models preceding it won’t support WhatsApp.
Similarly, for iPhone users, WhatsApp now supports iOS 10 (launched in 2016) or newer. You can update the iPhone 5 to iOS 10.3.4, but the iPhone 4S all other models preceding it will no longer be compatible and so won’t run WhatsApp.
If your phone is way past the point of updating to the supported OS versions for either Android or iPhone, you have no choice but to buy a new supported device if you wish to continue using WhatsApp.
In addition to the above-mentioned compatible OS versions, WhatsApp will also support devices running KaiOS 2.5.0 and newer, including the JioPhone and JioPhone 2.
Upgrade to Supported Versions to Continue Using WhatsApp
WhatsApp hasn’t made it clear in its article why it is dropping support for older Android devices and iPhones.
Regardless, if you own such a device, now would be the best time to update to a supported OS version or buy a new compatible phone if you want to continue using WhatsApp services.
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