According to WhatsApp’s latest statement, there will be extended support for devices running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread till 2020. Android Gingerbread made its debut back in 2010 and still has a 0.3% share of all Android users.
After February 1, 2020, Whatsapp users will not be able to access the messaging service, although the Facebook-owned company has confirmed that features for these platforms are no longer being introduced and cautions that certain ones could stop working at any time due to the lack of compatibility with newer versions of its app. Incidentally, the date coincides with Apple’s support retirement for iOS 7, which was introduced in 2013 along with the iPhone 5S.
Apart from the low number of users, the retirement of support for both platforms may have something to do with Facebook’s plan for the messaging service. Since it was acquired in 2014, it’s understood that Whatsapp has yet to turn a profit for the social media giant. Facebook also removed Whatsapp’s only source of profit at the time, the annual subscription fee, which may have further aggravated the issue. However, Facebook plans to use Whatsapp for new business features as a source of steady income to try and make up for the service’s daily running costs and hopefully turn in a profit.
Whatsapp also recently confirmed that support for the Nokia S40 platform would end on December 31, 2018.
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