WhatsApp will stop supporting some platforms after December 31

WhatsApp will stop supporting some platforms after December 31 according to the company's blog post. It will stop supporting BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8.0 and older platforms from December 31, 2017. Users will not be able to create new whatsapp accounts, nor re-verify their existing accounts on these platforms.

WhatsApp said in their blog post, "We will no longer actively develop for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time. These platforms don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer OS version, or to a newer Android running OS 4.0+, iPhone running iOS 7+, or Windows Phone 8.1+ so that you can continue using WhatsApp."

WhatsApp had earlier announced that it will stop supporting some platforms after December 31, but it does not meant that users will lose access to their WhatsApp account. Users can continue using the WhatsApp on their phone, just the thing is that they will not get any future security updates or new features updates.

While Windows 8 will get axed once 2018 starts, WhatsApp will continue support for Windows 8.1 version and higher devices, even though Microsoft itself has admitted that Windows Mobile is dead. 

BlackBerry also confirmed that it will no longer launching new smartphones and the BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS have been abandoned. Instead new BlackBerry-branded phones are now manufactured by China-based TCL and powered by Android OS.