WhatsApp: 49 smartphones will no longer be supported from 2023

At the turn of the year, WhatsApp's smartphone requirements are increasing again. Two iPhones also fall out of the list of officially supported messenger devices. A total of 49 smartphones are affected by the changed requirements, so that support for them will be discontinued on January 1, 2023.

This means no support more

However, WhatsApp will not become unusable on smartphones at the turn of the year, but the smartphones will no longer receive updates from next year, so that no more security gaps will be closed, no new WhatsApp account can be set up on them and an account that has already been created cannot be set up again be verified. Anyone who is currently still using WhatsApp on one of the affected smartphones should therefore refrain from deleting the app or verifying another device in the meantime, which would make it impossible to step back. It will be possible to bridge some time until WhatsApp will no longer work at all on smartphones, but it is not possible to say exactly when this will be the case.

GizChina has compiled the list of affected smartphones, which includes the Samsung Galaxy S2 and S3 mini, which are now showing their age. Because this time Android smartphones before version 4.1 of the operating system are affected by the shutdown. This time, however, it also affects the iPhone 5 (test) and iPhone 5c (test) from Apple, since smartphones with iOS 10 from 2016 and iOS 11 from 2017 are no longer supported. However, iOS 11 and 12 are not available for the iPhone 5 or 5c. Apple only updated the iPhone 5s to iOS 11 and 12, iOS 13 was then no longer received either, but only devices from the iPhone 6s.

According to WhatsApp, users who are still using one of these devices will be notified of the end of support.