ILLUSTRATION. The WhatsApp application now no longer supports smartphones running older versions of the Android operating system (OS). BETWEEN PHOTOS/Muhammad Adimaja
Source: Kompas.com | Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie
KONTAN.CO.ID – Immediately check your cellphone. The reason is, the popular messaging application WhatsApp now no longer supports smartphones running older versions of the Android operating system (OS).
WhatsApp announced this via the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page uploaded on their official blog.
The announcement states that starting today, Friday (24/10/2023), WhatsApp can no longer be used on cellphones with Android OS version 4.4 (KitKat) and below, including Android OS versions 4.1-4.3 (Jelly Bean).
This means that users must at least have a smartphone with Android OS 5.0 (Lollipop) or later to be able to chat with friends and family via WhatsApp.
Before this new policy, aka before 24 October 2023, the WhatsApp application could still run on cellphones with Android OS 4.1-4.4.
If users force to install WhatsApp on a cellphone with this version of Android OS, then they may be blocked by the system and the WhatsApp application will not be able to run as it should.
Also Read: Conditions for using WhatsApp with two numbers or two accounts on one cellphone and how
So, information about stopping WhatsApp support for Android versions 4.4 and below is nothing surprising.
The reason is, WhatsApp recently often provides notifications to cellphone users with the Android OS so that they use Android cellphones with the newer OS.
Apart from that, stopping WhatsApp on old Android phones also makes sense.
Because, apart from old Android phones possibly having decreased performance, the number of users using cellphones with Android OS version 5.0 and below also seems to be getting smaller as time goes by.
In fact, according to AppBrain, the number of Android KitKat OS users is only around 0.4 percent of the total number of Android OS users in the world today. Meanwhile, Android Lollipop OS users are only around 1.6 percent.
Also Read: Meet Xiaomi HyperOS, the newest OS to replace MIUI which debuts with the Xiaomi 14 Series
So, it’s only natural that WhatsApp stops supporting the application for cellphones with older Android OS (4.4 and below), because the number of users of various old Android OS is already small.
In addition, the majority of them may have switched to phones with newer Android OS, which will most likely have better performance than Android phones with older OS versions.
This article was published on Kompas.com with the title “List of Android Phones That Can’t Use WhatsApp Anymore Today”
Check other news and articles on Google News