WhatsApp cleans! These phones will no longer be supported starting in October

With new releases, WhatsApp regularly checks which operating systems are still supported and where you should slowly draw a line. At the beginning of the year, only a few iPhones were released that were still usable.

Now it’s time again: WhatsApp will stop supporting Android 4.1 to 4.4 on October 24. “As of October 24, 2023, only Android 5.0 and later will be supported,” the company blog says.

For older devices still running Android 4.1 to 4.4, this means no more WhatsApp updates and no ability to create new accounts or verify accounts. But after more than ten years, that’s okay. The old Android system, codenamed “Jelly Bean,” was introduced in 2012 and can be found on devices like the Samsung Galaxy S2, Xiaomi Mi2s, or LG Optimus L7.

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As of the deadline, WhatsApp will require at least Android 5, so anyone using Android 4.1 to 4.4 will be excluded from the network. According to Android Authority, this only affects a relatively small number of people: in May 2023, only 0.5 percent of all Android devices were still running Jelly Bean, and even Android’s share of 5 to 9 was in the 100% From one number. ranges. And in the Android world, according to the trade magazine, a 0.5 percent share still equates to 15 million devices — so WhatsApp’s warning is justified.

“If we no longer support your operating system, we will notify you and remind you several times to update your device to continue using WhatsApp,” WhatsApp wrote.

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The reasons for the change are always the same: “In order to keep up with the latest technological developments, we regularly stop supporting older operating systems in order to align our resources with the latest ones,” explain the messenger developers. (stern.de)

Note: This article first appeared on stern.de.