WhatsApp’s announcement to stop supporting BlackBerry and older Nokia devices isn’t such a big deal after all

Whatsapp recently announced their ending support for Blackberry along with several legacy devices by 2017, a move that is undoubtedly going to make it that much harder for BB and older Nokia owners to continue staying vested in these platforms.

In a blog post released a few days ago, the WhatsApp team clarified this move--one that they said addresses their past and looks to the future of the messaging platform.

The platforms that they will stop supporting will include:

- BlackBerry, including BlackBerry 10
- Nokia S40
- Nokia Symbian S60
- Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
- Windows Phone 7.1

With the exception of BlackBerry 10, all of these mobile operating systems are very old. Also considering this list, it implies they will continue to support all Android versions including and past Honeycomb (3.0) including past versions like Jellybean and KitKat. They will also continue to support earlier Windows mobile platforms such as Windows Phone 8.

The primary reason provided for stopping support for the older operating systems is that they simply do not offer the capability to support future development around WhatsApp.

With a user base that has just recently breached the 1 billion record this February, Whatsapp is the most popular messaging app on the planet. And while users of these older mobile platform will undoubtedly be affected, they account for only very outdated devices; many of which have stopped being commercially available for years now.

So if you happen to own a device that runs these older operating systems and wish to continue using it for whatever reason, it is very likely that WhatsApp may continue to operate, although the app will see no updates come 2017.

The only failsafe route to continue using the WhatsApp service, though, is to upgrade your phone to a newer device.