Nokia & BlackBerry will Lose WhatsApp by the End of 2016

WhatsApp has decided to end support for BlackBerry devices by the end of this year. In a blog post, in addition to pronouncing that it will stop support for BlackBerry devices including BlackBerry 10 the company also revealed that it will end support for Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and 2.2, and Windows Phone 7.1.

Nokia & BlackBerry will Lose WhatsApp by the End of 2016

The blog post revealed that:

“The devices don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future. This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.”

The Facebook-owned messaging app has more than 900 million users and over 10 billion messages are sent through it every day. According to Garnter’s recent research, BlackBerry, a company that once decreed almost 70% of the smartphone market seven years ago, now has under 1%.

After renaming itself from Research In Motion (RIM) to BlackBerry in 2013 and failing to introduce any fascinating BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 10, the Waterloo-based company is now implementing Android.

The latest BlackBerry Priv, a slider phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard hidden under its screen and full support for Android apps, is a step in the right track. Though BlackBerry states it will stay dedicated to BlackBerry 10, Android is the company’s future.

There’s still 10 months left before WhatsApp closes it down for these platforms. If users are still adhering onto a BlackBerry and use WhatsApp or use one of the above-mentioned Nokia, old Android and Windows Phone 7.1 platforms, it might be the right time to ruminate elevating to a new device.