If you have an older iPhone or Android phone, you may lose access to WhatsApp altogether or some features on the messaging app from 1 January 2021.
People who will be impacted are the ones who don’t have iOS 9 or above on their iPhone or Android 4.0.3 or above on their Android device.
People with iPhone 4 models won’t be able to update to more recent software. The same will happen to people with Android devices such as the Motorola Droid Razr and the Samsung Galaxy S2.
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
To find out what software you are using and whether you need to update before the new year, Apple users should go to their Settings, then go to “General” and “About”.
You can do that on an iPhone by going to Settings > General > Software update to see what software you’re running.
If you have an Android phone, you’ll be able to find it in your Settings, and it’ll likely to be under a section called “About Phone”.
Users of affected phones can also back up their chats before 1 January if they want to retain them.
They can do so by going to ‘Chat backup’ option under Chats section in Settings.
Aside from backing up their chats, users of old devices should also start looking for smartphones that are compatible with WhatsApp if they want to use the messaging app in the future.
Some with much older devices won’t be able to upgrade their software at all, and if that’s you, it may mean you lose access to certain WhatsApp features.
If that’s the case, or you lose access to the app altogether, you may have to upgrade your phone to be able to make the most of the app again.
Source: Eyewitness News
