WhatsApp stops working on millions of smartphones

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp will no longer work on millions of smartphones from 1 February.

Whatsapp said it is necessary to block people who are running older versions of the Android or iOS operating systems in order to protect the security of its users.

‘Because we no longer actively develop for these operating systems, some features might stop functioning at any time,’ said WhatsApp in a blog post.

Smartphones using Android 2.3.7 and older, and iPhone iOS 8 or older, are those affected by the update.

The latest update will mean users on unsupported devices will no longer be able to create new accounts or reverify existing accounts.

Every year the messaging app, which launched in 2009, removes support for devices that ‘don’t offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future’.

WhatsApp on Tuesday said that it will launch dark mode feature for its iPhone users with the launch of an update for the beta version on Google play platform.

WhatsApp has also tweaked the forward button symbol in the latest iOS Beta version. Additionally, the group and profile icons were updated too, supporting dark colors.