WhatsApp to Stop Working on Older iPhone, Android Phones from December 31: Report

Meta-owned WhatsApp will reportedly stop working on older iPhone models as well as android phones. The changes will be applicable to as many as 49 smartphones starting from December 31, as per the report. Users with older iPhone models will have to upgrade their handsets to iOS 12 or newer while Android users will be required to Android OS 4.1 or later to continue using WhatsApp. This means iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c users will no longer be able to use WhatsApp on their phones.

According to a report from GizChina, WhatsApp may discontinue support for iOS 11, Android OS 4 and older from December 31. The list of outdated handsets includes 49 smartphones from Apple, Samsung, LG, Huawei, and others. iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c users might have to upgrade to newer iPhones whereas iPhone 5s or later models can be updated to iOS 12 and hence will continue to support WhatsApp.

In order to keep using WhatsApp on their handsets, users will have to get an iOS 12 and Android 4.1 or newer updates. These phones are pretty old and most of them are not compatible with new operating systems. Once WhatsApp ends support for these devices, the messaging service will stop working on them. Here’s the list of phones that will reportedly stop supporting WhatsApp from December 31.

WhatsApp will stop working on these phones:

iPhone 5

iPhone 5c

Archos 53 Platinum

Grand S Flex ZTE

Grand X Quad V987 ZTE

HTC Desire 500

Huawei Ascend D

Huawei Ascend D1

Huawei Ascend D2

Huawei Ascend G740

Huawei Ascend Mate

Huawei Ascend P1

Quad XL

Lenovo A820

LG Enact

LG Lucid 2

LG Optimus 4X HD

LG Optimus F3

LG Optimus F3Q

LG Optimus F5

LG Optimus F6

LG Optimus F7

LG Optimus L2 II

LG Optimus L3 II

LG Optimus L3 II Dual

LG Optimus L4 II

LG Optimus L4 II Dual

LG Optimus L5

LG Optimus L5 Dual

LG Optimus L5 II

LG Optimus L7

LG Optimus L7 II

LG Optimus L7 II Dual

LG Optimus Nitro HD

Memo ZTE V956

Samsung Galaxy Ace 2

Samsung Galaxy Core

Samsung Galaxy S2

Samsung Galaxy S3 mini

Samsung Galaxy Trend II

Samsung Galaxy Trend Lite

Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2

Sony Xperia Arc S

Sony Xperia miro

Sony Xperia Neo L

Wiko Cink Five

Wiko Darknight ZT

Earlier, as per a report, WhatsApp was supposed to discontinue support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 by October 24. The report suggested that this step could force iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c users to upgrade to a newer iPhone model as it’s not practical to install an iOS update that will support WhatsApp. However, the report suggested that 89 percent of iPhone users have moved to iOS 15, while 4 percent of users have iOS 13 or earlier versions installed.